Illyasviel and the Philosopher's Stone
by musilk
Summary: In which Illya discovers about the Wizarding World and runs off to escape her fate as being the Grail. Forewarning: Most Likely be some OOC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Stay Night or Harry Potter

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

Illya could only wince from her secret compartment as she saw her Berserker get torn apart by whatever servant was down there. From her position, she could make out everything that was going on. Towards the left, she could spot Shirou desperately trying to get down there to save her homunculus and the only thing stopping him was Rin. Illya didn't know how to react to that. After all, Shirou was the reason Kiritsugu abandoned her in the first place. It was his fault that she had to go through hell and in retaliation, she tried to kill him. So why did he want to save her? She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to get distracted. If everything went the way she wanted it to, then by the end of the night she would be on a one way trip to England.

It was only a few years ago that she decided that she wanted no part in the Holy Grail War. She thought back to that day, to the day when she discovered that wizards exist. Ever since she accepted the fact that Kiritsugu no longer wanted to be with her anymore, she had the same recurring nightmare where she was chained to a table. It was the same table that was used to modify her body to be able to fight in the next Holy Grail War. Jubstacheit would then come in with a marker and no matter how much she tried to break free, she couldn't get away. After he would mark where he was going to operate for the day, he would leave to go grab his tools and as he did so, Kiritsugu would barge in the door. Every time Kiritsugu came, Illya would turn to face him, tears and hope in her eyes that this time he would save her and get her out of there. However, instead of Kiritsugu coming to her aid, he would run right past her, not even sparing a glance, and pick up an orange-haired boy from off the ground. He would then smile, kiss and hug the boy close before turning around to leave. As he passed, Illya would be pleading and begging for Kiritsugu to take her too, to not leave her there. He would continue walking to the door and when he got there, he would turn around and ask "Why bother with you when I have Shirou?" He would then leave and Jubstacheit would then come in with his tools. Tears would run down her face as she realized that she would never get away. Jubstacheit would then pick up the first tool, but before he could start operating on Illya, she would thankfully wake up.

Whenever this dream occurred, she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep and so she would either get a book to read, grab a midnight snack, or bother Liz or Sella if they were awake. Tonight, she didn't feel like reading, wasn't hungry, and unfortunately, Liz and Sella were asleep, so she decided to just aimlessly wander around the mansion. She walked for a while when she realized that the door she had just passed was Kiritsugu's private room. Illya was never allowed in there and she never knew why. When she asked about it, Sella and Liz explained how there was a possibility that the room was trapped with something and they didn't want to deal with it.

The thought crossed her mind that she was now a capable magus and could handle any traps Kiritsugu could set up. She reached for the handle and the moment she laid her hand on the knob, she hesitated. She had no idea about what could have been inside, sure she was capable of handling herself, but was it worth the risk? After debating in her head if satisfying her curiosity was worth the risk, she decided that it wasn't and that it was best to leave his room alone when the thought occurred to her, that maybe, just maybe, there was a clue about why he hasn't come back yet, or why he betrayed her or just something.

The idea was tempting and in one timeline she would fight off the temptation and go back to her room, however, this is not that timeline. Steeling herself for whatever may come she tried to twist the handle.

Locked. Of course, it was. In hindsight, she should have known that his room was locked and now that she thought about it, the door itself might be trapped as well.

Illya looked up and down the hall making sure that no one was looking and seeing no one around, casted a simple spell. One that revealed any type of traps or alarms that Kiritsugu had placed. Sure enough, there was a simple alarm spell that was set to trigger when someone had broken the lock and would notify Kiritsugu. Knowing that it wasn't going to cause a loud sound or harm her in any way, Illya conjured up one of her storch ritter's and had it shoot into the keyhole, breaking the pins inside.

In Japan, an alarm went off inside Kiritsugu's mind as his spell rang throughout his head. The spell revealed the intruder to be one Illyasviel Von Einzbern. He couldn't help but smile as he thought about his daughter. Next to him was a briefcase full of different tools and a set of tickets to Germany. This time for sure, he would bring Illya back with him. Shirou came in and brought some tea. As he sat down and started talking with him, Kiritusgu couldn't help but wonder how well Shirou and Illya would get along. His smile grew as he imagined Illya next to Shirou, he longed for the three of them to be together.

Dismissing the Storch Ritter, Illya walked into the dark room and searched around for a light switch. Finding it on the wall next to her, she flipped it on and found that the room was pretty much empty except for a bed, a set of drawers, a table, and a ton of dust. Illya berated herself for getting her hopes up. Of course, it would be empty. Despite that, she walked around and looked at the table. Nothing there. She went to the drawers and opened them one by one, from top to bottom. The only thing that she found were a couple of stacks of paper in the bottom drawer along with a box. Her heart skipped a beat. Maybe one of the papers or inside...no no no she thought to herself, there's no way a clue about Kiritsugu would be in those papers or the box. She bent down and sure enough, the papers held no clues. They were simply targets that Kiritsugu was either planning on going after or had gone after.

She shifted through the pages, not having anything better to do. About halfway through, she stopped and read this contract over a second time. Then a third time to make sure she read it right. Every contract that she looked at had been about some kind of magus or dead apostle that Kiritsugu succeeded in, this contract, however, was talking about wizards and was never accepted. The contract read like this.

Magus Killer,

I need you to kill a man by the name of Peter Pettigrew.

I've included a photo of the traitor.

He should be hiding in England. I'm sure your magic can locate him from there.

Peter is an animagus and can turn into a rat so be aware of that.

He's also missing a finger.

This next part is the part that intrigued Illya.

I know that magi and wizards don't get along at all, especially since the war, but everyone in the Wizarding World believes Peter to be dead.

If you need to speak with me any further, I'll be in Azkaban. Ask the guards for Sirius Black.

I've also sent a portkey in the form of a boot, inside the package will also be a down payment of 100 galleons.

Touch the boot and it'll teleport you to the Leaky Cauldron.

It's a tavern meant for wizards, so make sure you don't talk to any muggles about it.

I trust you know what to do from there. Bring me proof that Peter's dead, and I'll tell you where the dropbox is with the rest of your payment.

Also, don't worry about the curse. If it affects you, I know how to reverse it.

Sirius Black

Galleons? Muggles? Azkaban? Illya had never heard of these terms before and wondered who wizards are. From what it sounded like, a wizard seemed to be a magus, but the words used were confusing. Illya set the contract down and opened up the box. Sure enough, there was a boot inside and what appeared to be a hundred gold coins. She had no idea how much that was worth.

She decided that she'd talk to Sella or Liz in the morning and ask them if they knew what a wizard was. Illya folded the paper back up and stuffed it into a pocket and went back to her room to think about this new development.

While laying in bed, Illya rethought about joining in on the Holy Grail War. Her entire life, she was told that participating in the war was the only thing she was made for and that there was no escaping it.

Even if she tried to run away before the war started, she'd have to sneak past all of the servants, get past the front door, and make it all the way down the snowy mountain, all of which would have to be done before Jubstacheit found out and used his scrying ball to locate her. The only motivation that kept her going was her want to get revenge against Kiritsugu for abandoning her.

With this discovery of wizards, it opened a new path to her. She thought about the boot under her bed and was tempted to use it right then and there and head off to England, but she didn't know who these wizards were. If they were just a group of mages that used some weird slang, then they'd have no reason to help her and if they found out who she was, would use her. She could end up in a worse situation then the current one she was already in, on the other hand, if they weren't mages and something else, maybe they would have something that could fix her. Turn her back into being human. In the end, Illya decided that it was best to learn more about the wizards before going to them. With that matter aside, Illya, unable to sleep due to her fear of her nightmares, decided to grab a book to read.

That following morning, Sella walked into Illya's room with breakfast. She walked over and found Illya with a book, peeking at the cover, she saw that it was Alice in Wonderland. Sella placed the tray down in front of Illya, gaining her attention as she lifted her head from her book.

"Morning Sella," Illya said with a yawn. She placed the book down next to her and looked at the tray. On it was different types of bread with jams and sausages as well as some hot chocolate to go with it. She picked up one of the pieces of bread and started to put some jam on it, when she turned to Sella, intent on asking about the Wizarding World.

"Hey Sella, so I was going through some of Kiritsugu's stuff and found this old, tattered up paper" Illya realized at some point in her book that Sella would want to know how Illya knew about the Wizarding World.

Remembering that the contract mentioned a teleporting boot, she grabbed the contract from her pocket and started to crinkle and tear it, specifically the parts about the boots. The result was the contract looking very worn and torn.

Sella frowned in disapproval while taking the paper, "you know you're not supposed to be going through Kiritsugu's things. What if something had happened to you?"

"I know, but I'm a capable magus now. I can handle myself"

"And Kiritsugu would hunt more capable mages then you. What if he had some leftover device that was meant for an assassination and you got injured by it?"

"Oh please, as if he would have left something behind. We both know he's too thorough to leave something."

"And if he did make that mistake? What then?"

"Then he wouldn't be as good as everyone claimed."

There was a momentary pause where Sella looked down at her with an annoyed look. Illya thought to herself that Sella was over worrying.

"Oh, whatever!" Illya exclaimed, and then hurriedly made to change the subject and pointed towards the bottom of the contract "the last half of the contract, it talks about wizards. What are they? I've never heard of them before."

Sella looked over the last half and saw what Illya meant. She then folded up the paper and tucked it into her front pocket. "Don't worry about it. They're nothing of importance. And don't go looking through Kiritsugu's old things."

Ignoring the last part, Illya pressed on, "What do you mean they aren't important? What if one of them was chosen by the grail to be a master in the next Grail War? Shouldn't I know about them in case that situation arises?"

"Impossible. The way they perform magecraft is fundamentally different and inferior from how we do it. They would never be able to summon and maintain a servant."

This only served to increase Illya's curiosity and seeing the look on her face, Sella couldn't help but indulge in her curiosity. She sat down by the foot of the bed. Illya, seeing that Sella was willing to talk, began her questioning.

"How is their magecraft different from ours?"

"There are a lot of different ways that we differ from them, the most being that they don't have any magic circuits within them."

"But then ho-" Sella put up her hand, silencing Illya for a moment already knowing what she was going to ask.

"They use a catalyst called a wand to perform magecraft. It acts as a magic circuit and allows them to perform magecraft."

"Wait, so anyone can become a wizard as long as they have a wand?" Illya didn't know how she felt about that. A part of her was hopeful that these wizards could be her ticket out of the Grail War. Another part was offended that they didn't have to go through the difficult training that a magus had to.

"Not quite, for unknown reasons, only certain people can use wands and be wizards or witches and as far as we know, mages can't use wands either." Illya gave her a confused look.

"Why are the reasons unknown? I figured the mage's association would investigate this sort of thing?"

"Oh, they tried. Once wizards and witches were discovered, all different types of magi moved to try to study and dissect them to figure out what they were. However, the Wizarding World didn't take too kindly to that which led to war. The magi had more power and were more experienced, however, the wizards had a larger army and each one had a variety of spells that they could use. Eventually, the mages began to slowly overpower the wizards and when the wizards called for a truce, the magi agreed only because everyone wanted to go back to their previous research to get to the Root. So the wizards created a treaty that neither world would interfere with the other and whoever did would receive some sort of curse. Ever since, the Moonlit Morld and the Wizarding World have remained separate. It's probably the reason Kiritsugu never accepted this contract."

Illya's head was running through all the info she had just taken in. Wizards used a different type of magecraft. A magecraft that Mages don't know. A magecraft that could get me out of my situation. Sella got up after a moment of silence, assuming that Illya had no more questions. Taking the now empty tray, she went off to the kitchen and left Illya to her thoughts.

As Sella left, Illya started to plan. If she wanted to leave, it'd have to be at some point in the next Holy Grail War. The only time where she wouldn't be monitored by Jubstacheit. Something would have to be done about Sella and Liz, but Illya figured that she could convince them to help her and if not, well, she'd cross that bridge when she got there. The only thing she needed to do was figure out how she would leave and at what point during the war. There was the fact of her condition after all. That would have to be the first thing that would need to be taken care of.

The second thing she needed to consider was the treaty between the Moonlit World and the Wizarding World. How far could Illya interfere with the Wizarding World before the curse took effect? What would even happen?

Illya didn't know and quite frankly, she wasn't sure if she cared either. She was bound to die if things kept the same, so if breaking the treaty killed her, then so be it. That was her outcome anyways.

She also would need the other masters and servants to think that she was dead. Illya doubted that her servant would just let her abandon the war and therefore, that servant would need to die as well as Illya.

It took her a little bit of thinking, but the answer was obvious. A homunculus. With it, Illya would have it do her battles for her, with exception to fighting Shirou, and would have her homunculus and servant die at the first servant battle unless of course, it was against Shirou. With this idea in mind, she would work harder to perfect her alchemy and magecraft, and at night she would sneak around, puttering her homunculus together.

It was around the time that Illya was supposed to head out to Fuyuki that she completed her homunculus. Dubbing it Chloe, she packed it up and hoped it would fool everyone.

Illya blinked. She couldn't believe that she had just spaced out just then thinking about everything that led up to this point. She thought about Sella and Liz and as she did so, could feel a tear threatening to come out. She forced it back in, they were merely tools she told herself, same as Berserker.

'Still, even if they were just tools, Sella and Liz were the closest people I had to family and Berserker was the closest thing I had to a friend' Illya solemnly thought to herself.

The tears once again threatened to emerge. She slapped the sides of her face and told herself that she needed to focus. She peered through the hole to observe what was happening.

She could feel her heartbreak as she saw Berserker's body all chained up with a giant spear going through his chest. Chloe was on the ground bleeding out and Shirou was fiercely trying to shove Rin off to get down there. She looked on as the servant walked up to Chloe and then proceeded to rip her heart out. Judging by his satisfied look, she had succeeded in tricking him.

At the same time, Berserker was trying to break through the chains and Illya tried to tell him through the telepathic link to stay down, that he could still live if he did. Whether it was due to his madness enhancement or seeing the copy that looked exactly like her get murdered, Berserker didn't listen and broke through the chains. The least she could do as Berserker's master was witness his last moments.

Swearing vengeance against that servant and whoever his master is, she grabbed her luggage and the boot and went on a one way trip to the Leaky Cauldron.


	2. Chapter 2

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

She didn't know what she was expecting once she grabbed the boot, probably something similar to entering and exiting a reality marble where the world simply changed around you. What she wasn't expecting was for a strange pull in her naval and then to suddenly find herself on her stomach on a wooden floor. She felt her face redden a bit when she realized that there were people who had seen her land so gracefully.

Picking herself up, she dusted herself off and took a step only to get a sudden feeling of vertigo and stumbled. Someone chuckled a little and she sent a glare in their direction, which only caused them to chuckle some more. Huffing a little in annoyance, Illya recovered from her vertigo and walked over to whom she assumed to be the barkeep of the tavern.

"I take it that was your first time using a portkey" The barkeep stated as he wiped down a tankard with his worn-out rag.

"Yeah it was, nobody told me about the after-effects of what would happen when I touched the boot." Illya placed her luggage next to her and did a curtsy, combined with the outfit she had on it gave off the impression that she was from an elite family. "By the way, my name is Illyasviel Von Einzbern. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Between the introduction, outfit and curtsy, Tom was convinced that she was from some aristocratic family, "Likewise, my names Tom. I'm also the owner of this tavern."

He glanced up for a quick moment, expecting to see her parents coming up and frowned slightly when he didn't see anyone. He looked back to Illya who was looking at the menu. "Do you know where your parents happen to be little miss?"

Illya paused for a moment and considered her options. In hindsight, she probably should have seen this coming, but due to everything that had happened, Illya kinda overlooked it. She now had the option to say that she was eighteen, although she hardly doubts anyone would believe it and that would lead them to suspicion. She could claim that both of her parents were "muggles" that had an aversion to magecraft, but she didn't know much about the Wizarding World and for all she knew, it could be hereditary. That only left one option.

"I was adopted by non-magical parents at a young age. When they found out that I was a-a-a witch they told me that I could figure out all this hocus pocus stuff myself and that they wanted no part of it." Illya put on her best "I'm a sad little child so please believe me look" which seemed to work on Tom.

"I see. I always forget that some muggles have a weird aversion to magic. Although, I'm curious, how did you get a portkey then?" Illya cursed herself. She had hoped that Tom wouldn't have caught that little hole in her story, but she wasn't an idiot and within a few seconds already had an answer.

"Well, when they told me to look into it myself, I figured I would look through a library, you know, see if they had anything on magic. I couldn't find anything and my frustration led me to accidentally do magic, but luckily there was another wizard there who covered for me and he gave me the portkeyed boot and said that it'd bring me here. That was a couple of weeks ago. I would have come straight here, but I wanted to see if the library had anything or not."

"I get it now. Hate to break it to you miss, but you aren't going to find anything about Hogwarts in a muggle library. We try to keep anything magic-related a secret." Tom said nodding, assuming Illya had gotten the school invite.

"Hogwarts?" Illya muttered to herself, scrunching her face up in confusion. She had meant to keep it silently to herself, but unfortunately for her Tom overheard it.

"Yeah you know, the school you were invited to. The invitation is how all muggle raised wizards and witches first learn about the wizarding world. Didn't you get yours?"

"Oh yes, now I remember. We never told our servants about me having magic and so one when one of them found it they threw it away thinking it was a joke."

"No worries, I know some people that work over at Hogwarts. I'll get them to send an owl with another invite, after all, that invite has all of your school supplies on it and now that I think about it, only a month until the term starts."

"Thanks for the help, I'd greatly appreciate it." Illya felt a tad bit bad for lying straight to Tom's face seeing as he was being helpful to her, but it wasn't like she was ever going to see him again. After all, she only wanted info on where to go from here and then she'd be off.

"Also how much is a room for the night? I kinda didn't think about how I was going to get back home." Illya said pretending to be a bit sheepish.

"Cheapest is twenty-two galleons and the most expensive is twenty-five galleons, but you don't need to worry about paying right now. We don't take any muggle money here, so I'll put it on a tab and you can repay me at some point. Same goes with any food you order."

Illya got the cheapest room and after thanking Tom, made her way there. Considering the time difference between Japan and England, it was about night time and so no stores would be open around this time. Knowing this, Illya decided that she'd begin her search in the morning. With that thought in mind, Illya went to bed.

The next morning found Illya to be in a bit of a groggy mood. The time difference was about eight hours and considering how she hasn't had the time to adjust, she wasn't able to fall asleep until around seven in the morning. Illya had just closed her eyes planning on getting a few hours of sleep when a knock came on her door.

Groaning a little bit, she rolled out of bed landing on the floor with a thump. Slowly picking herself up off the floor, she made her way over there and opened the door expecting to see Tom, but instead was greeted with a giant. Illya stood stunned for a moment, at first she thought that perhaps Berserker had survived and come back to her, but that thought left as soon as it came as she would have still had the connection to Berserker if he was alive and that this giant, while similar in height, was not anywhere near as buff as Berserker was. A child peered at her from behind the giant's leg, trying to get a better view of her. He looked to be about her physical age and had messy black hair, green eyes, and a pair of broken glasses. She noted the over-sized and tattered clothes and deduced that he was from a poorer family.

"Uh, do you need something?" Illya asked while blinking, trying to wake herself up a little bit.

"Good mornin', I'm Hagrid, the groundskeeper at Hogwarts and this boy here is Harry Potter." She looked from the giant to the kid who then greeted her with a wave and small smile. "Anyways, We got here this mornin' and Tom told us about another firs' year that doesn't know anythin' about the Wizardin' World, so I figure why not show yer and Harry around as well."

"Oh well, in that case, a pleasure to meet you, I'm Illyasviel Von Einzbern." Illya returned the greeting with a curtsy, waking up fully when she heard Hagrid introduce himself.

"I appreciate you guys coming to get me then and I hope we get along Mr. Hagrid. Mister Potter." Illya said.

"No need to be so formal, jus Hagrid well do," Hagrid replied.

"And you can just call me Harry."

"In that case, you can call my Illya since Illyasviel is a bit long of a name. Anyways when do we leave?"

"We can get goin' as soon as we've had some breakfas'. Professor Dumbledore gave me some money, so I got breakfas' covered fer us."

After a rather uneventful breakfast, where for some reason people kept coming up to Harry and thanking him for some reason, they walked into an alleyway. Illya looked at the wall in front of them and frowned. Something about it felt off, almost like a bounded field. She watched as Hagrid walked up and tapped on a couple of bricks with his broom.

She couldn't hide her surprise when the bricks started to move and it opened up to reveal an alley full of wizards and witches going about. There were a variety of different shops that sold things she never laid her eyes on. A grin started to form on her face and she was filled with a mixture of excitement and hope.

She looked over at Harry and saw a wide smile plastered on his face. He was also enjoying seeing magecraft for the first time. As they went started on their way, Illya heard a sound behind her and glimpsed back to see the wall close back in, as if nothing ever happened.

"Alright, firs' stop is Gringotts. Come on, it's this way." Hagrid started down the crowded road and Illya and Harry followed along behind him. Illya looked at all the different shops, one that sold cauldrons, another sold different kinds of pets, a bookshop, she mentally marked that place to come back later, and an Apothecary. Here she did stop to look at all the different types of ingredients available. After all, she was an alchemist. There were things there like Dragon livers, eyes of newts, salamander skin, and all other sorts of goodies that she wanted to get.

"Illya, we gotta get going or we'll get left behind." She heard Harry call out to her. She pulled herself away from the Apothecary and started after them again. They kept walking until they reached a giant white building with bronze doors. Next to the doors was what Illya assumed to be some kind of hideous gnome.

"Hagrid is that-" Harry started.

"Yeah, that's a goblin" Hagrid stated as they walked in.

'Hold on, aren't goblins suppose to be green?' Illya thought to herself before stopping to read an engraving on the second set of doors.

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Illya wasn't quite sure what they had guarding the bank, but she would rather not find out. Once inside the bank, Illya told Hagrid that she needed to exchange some of her muggle money for wizarding money. She broke off from them and approached one of the goblins.

"Excuse me, sir" Illya greeted the goblin with a curtsy, "I'd like to exchange this cash for whatever wizards use." She dumped whatever yen she had on her on the goblins desk.

"I see." The goblin said stroking his beard and then gave her a grin that she recognized all too well, after all, she had her own version of that look. This goblin was going to try to cheat her out of a fair exchange. Keyword try.

"For this amount, the exchange is 10 galleons, 8 sickles, and 26 knuts." The goblin reached to get the money from under his desk when Illya stopped him.

"Now, are you sure about that?"

"Are you questioning a goblin on money? We're experts in it." The goblin responded to her implication in an offended manner.

"Oh, then you wouldn't mind if I brought Hagrid over here just to make sure?" Illya said pointing to the half-giant that was chatting with another goblin. Realizing she wasn't alone, he quickly went to remedy his mistake.

"Would you look at that, there were some bills hidden underneath, the total is 15 galleons, 12 sickles, and 8 knuts." He handed her the money, Illya with a bit of an arrogant smirk thanked the goblin and made her way over. As she left, the goblin made his own arrogant smirk, after all, if you can't cheat them out of a quarter of their money, that doesn't mean you still can't cheat them out of some of it.

Illya rejoined them and was then led by a goblin named Griphook to a set of railway tracks. He let out a whistle and soon after a cart came speeding towards them. With all of them in together, the cart sped off at insane speeds. It reminded Illya off when she would ride on berserkers back, the wind rushing past her face and a sense that nothing could catch them. Eventually, the cart came to a sudden stop.

She looked up and noticed that they were at a small door. She followed everyone out and was beyond amazed at how much money laid within Harry's vault. It made her question why he looked like he lived out on the streets his whole life. She looked over at him and based on his expression, he had no idea that this money was even here.

Once Hagrid had gotten some money for Harry, they got back in the cart and sped off to the next vault. On their way, a question came up in Illya's mind.

"Hey, if someone were to fall off, what would happen?" She half-shouted over the wind in her eyes.

"They die," Griphook responded nonchalantly. Hearing that response, she gripped the sides of the cart even harder and Harry seemed to try to fit more of himself into the cart. A moment later they arrived at the next vault. Seven hundred and thirteen.

They got out and Griphook ordered them to stand back. He then stroked the door to the vault with one of his fingers and the door just melted away.

"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," Griphook said.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.

"About once in every ten years" was the reply.

Once the door had completely melted away, Illya felt it. A magical power that was beyond anything she could imagine. If the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron was like a leaky faucet, then this was a waterfall. The only thing Illya could think of that would have stronger power was the Holy Grail. Could whatever Hagrid was getting be the key to her salvation? It was worth looking into.

She peered in from the side of Hagrid and saw a small sack in the room. Whatever was inside that sack must be some kind of powerful mystic code. It was small and held a lot of magical energy, it was perfect. If she could just get her hands on it, she might be able to replace the Holy Grail inside of her with it. After all, she didn't need a wish-granting device, just something to replace her heart with.

"Hagrid, what is that you're carrying?" Illya asked him trying to get some info.

"Sorry Illya, it's official Hogwart's business only," Hagrid said as they climbed back into the cart. Illya cursed under her breath. She was nearly certain that whatever Hagrid was carrying would be able to save her. So close yet so far. Considering her options, she could one, wait until it was just her and Hagrid and then she could use her mystic eyes of binding on him and steal whatever he has. Two, she could explain her situation to them and hope they would be kind enough to give her whatever he has. Three, look for something else. Out of all those options, the first was by far the best in her opinion. She only needed to wait or create the opportunity to use her mystic eyes on him.

They made their way outside and the entire time, Illya was thinking of different ways to get Hagrid alone, but she couldn't think of how to separate Harry from Hagrid.

"Now then, let's get yer guys uniforms," Hagrid said leading them to a store called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, you two, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He said looking a bit sickly. Harry was fine with him going, but Illya saw an opportunity.

"Mind if I tag along Hagrid?" She asked also acting a little sick. "I could use a pick-me-up myself after all of that and I forgot something in my room as well." Of course, she hadn't forgotten anything, this would create the perfect chance for her to do her theft.

"Normally I wouldn' mind, but the pick-me-up is a bit on the strong side, if yeh get my drift. Not legal fer kids." Illya cursed again. In Germany, there wouldn't be a problem as she was older then what she appeared, but here she was just another eleven-year-old brat. With no other choice, she followed Harry inside Madame Malkin's store as Hagrid made off to the Leaky Cauldron.

As they walked in, they both spotted a witch on the shorter and bigger side.

"Are you two dearies heading to Hogwarts?" She asked while moving towards them.

On seeing Harry nod his head in confirmation, she replied: "been getting the lot of them here, in fact, there's another young man being fitted up just now." She then led Harry and Illya to the back where a pale, blond boy was being outfitted. She set Harry next to him and Illya next to Harry.

"Hello," the boy said in a dull and uninterested tone. "Are you going to Hogwarts as well?"

"Yeah, we both are" Harry replied. The boy moved slightly, apparently, he hadn't seen Illya move next to Harry and on seeing her a smile came to his face and all of a sudden he seemed to be very interested.

"My apologies, I hadn't seen you there." the boy said, directing his attention to Illya. "My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said while trying to make himself look as important and powerful as possible. Considering that he was only eleven, it was rather funny for Illya to look at and she had to bite back a giggle.

"Illyasviel Von Einzbern" Illya responded. By now Draco had his attention solely on Illya, and both Harry and Illya knew why. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Oh no, the pleasure is all mine." He replied shooting her a smile and a wink. Illya couldn't believe it. She was like seven to eight years his senior and he was trying to flirt with her and his attempts at it were just cringe worthy. A glance at Harry and seeing him cringe almost made her laugh out loud, but she wasn't raised as nobility for no reason, it was difficult but she was able to reign it in, but not without Draco noticing her expression. However, instead of realizing that she was trying her best not to laugh, he saw it as a look of surprise.

"I see you realize now." He said, puffing himself up even more. "Yes, I am from THAT Malfoy family. The very prestigious and powerful Malfoy family and am the very heir to my father." Illya would have said something in return, but she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she'd have burst out laughing and it looked like Harry didn't have it any better. Unfortunately, Draco hasn't noticed and took their silence as reverence.

"While I'd love to stay and chat with you further, Illyasviel, it seems my Father has come to get me. I hope to see you in Slytherin, after all, it's only the best house meant for the best wizards and witches and with both you and I in it, the Slytherin house will be greater then it has ever been before." And with that Draco left, and both Illya and Harry couldn't keep it in anymore, they both burst out laughing with tears streaming down their faces.

Even when they were done getting outfitted and outside, the experience they went through still had them laughing.

"The pleasure is all mine," Harry said smiling and winking at Illya, mimicking Draco.

"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" Illya responded, standing with a superior smirk on her face and sticking her chest out. They both burst into laughter again.

"Good teh see that the two of yer are already good friends," Hagrid said smiling while carrying three different ice cream cones. Hearing him they both stopped and looked at each other.

Friends. Were they friends? It never occurred to either of them, after all, neither one of them had an actual friend and so neither of them knew what to think or feel about it. After a moment, Harry gave her a wide smile and Illya gave a fake one back. Out of the two, only one liked the fact that they had a friend now.

Illya followed behind Hagrid and Harry to the next store, she was deep in thought. For most of her life, she was utterly alone and anyone that came into her life was either her enemy or a tool to be used. This was the first time that she had someone who wanted to be her friend, but Illya knew it wouldn't last. She wasn't a witch, she was a magus and so she'd have to leave the wizarding world as soon as possible.

That only left one choice for Illya, she told herself that Harry was only a tool. She told herself that the moment he was done being useful, she'd cut ties with him and never look back just as she told herself about Berserker.

"Hey Illya, come on" Harry waved at her, she hadn't realized how far they started to drift. Putting on her fake smile, smile jogged to catch up to him.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"We're were just talking about the different houses in Hogwarts."

"Houses?" Illya asked trying to recall if she had either heard about it from someone and seeing the confused look on her face, Harry filled her in on everything that Hagrid told him and how Slytherin was ironically, the worst house to be in. They continued going from shop to shop buying everything that they needed to, stopping at a pet shop where Hagrid got Harry for his birthday present.

They then looked for a pet for Illya after Harry chose his owl. A toad wasn't at all appealing, cats were even worse, so that left only an owl. She looked around and spotted a large owl in the corner. It had a brown body with dark brown spots all over it. Illya looked at the label "Eurasian eagle-owl". For some reason, this owl seemed to resonate with her. She picked it up and went back to Harry and Hagrid.

"Hmm, I see that you got a Eurasian eagle-owl," Hagrid commented appraising the owl.

"Do you know a lot about them?" She asked.

"Yeah, they're a larger breed of owl and dependin' on who you ask, it's also one of the strongest if not the strongest type of owl."

"Is that so?" Illya asked looking at the owl again. With this new info, it wasn't hard to pick a name for this bird. "Heracles. This owl's name will be Heracles."

"Name him after one of the strongest men in the world. I can see why if he's from a strong breed." Harry said.

"Not just one of the strongest, Heracles IS the strongest. No one can beat him. At least in a straight fight, no one can." Illya said this all with a sorrowful face and had quieted down towards the end. Harry and Hagrid thought it was a little weird to feel emotional on someone who had died hundreds of years ago, but they decided to leave it be.

Next on the list were their book supplies at Flourish and Blotts. Illya let Hagrid and Harry get the books, after all, she doesn't have the school list, and so she looked around the bookstore for whatever the thing Hagrid had. She was going through what appeared to be the history section of the bookstore. She scoured this section looking for something along the lines of "Artifacts through History" or maybe something like "Creators of Treasured Relics" something that could hint at what Hagrid has or to any other item that could do the same job. She kept looking and had just passed "The Goblin Wars" when she caught sight of another book. "The War with the Magi".

"Illya, where are you, we got everything we need." She heard Harry calling from somewhere in the store. She grabbed the book and went to join up with them.

"That's an odd book to be gettin'," Hagrid said looking at what she had.

"I just want to read it for fun," Illya said as she bought the book.

They left Flourish and Blotts and went towards their last destination to get the last item on the list. Their wands. Illya was nervous about this part, the statement from Sella from all those years ago coming back to her now. "Mages can't use wands." Illya hoped that she could just lie her way out of why none of the wands would work for her.

The shop itself was shabby looking and had peeling letters above the door that read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. Illya wasn't sure how accurate that statement was, but whatever. From somewhere inside the store Illya, heard the tinkling of the bell, letting whoever owned the store know they were there. She looked around at all the different boxes and wands around. Off to the corner, Illya spotted Hagrid sitting down on a chair and Harry was nearby him. Just as she was about to pick up a wand, a soft voice said "Hello." Jumping back in surprise, she turned around and saw an old man with pale eyes standing near the center of the room. Seeing the surprised looks on Harry's and Hagrid's faces brought her relief as she wasn't the only one who got startled.

"Hi" Harry replied awkwardly.

Illya watched Ollivander as he talked with Harry and Hagrid. She liked to think that she was a somewhat perceptive person and the way that Ollivander had just snuck up on them without her noticing sent off warning alarms in her head. Making sure that she had at least one eye on him, she returned to browsing around.

At one point, Ollivander had taken out a measuring tape and curious to see what it would she, she was shocked to see it have a life on its own as it started to measure various parts of Harry's body. She couldn't think of any mystic codes that were capable of flying around like that. What's next? The wands are going to fly around and talk?

For some reason, the thought of that happening caused Illya to shiver all over. Eventually, Ollivander brought out a wand and handed it to Harry, who then waved it around. As soon as he did, Ollivander snatched the wand back and kept handing him wand after wand. Sometimes, Harry would've just grabbed it before Ollivander took it right back. This continued until Harry was able to get his wand. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple.

The moment Harry's wand was chosen, Hagrid cheered and Ollivander cried out "Oh, bravo! Yes, bravo indeed! However, it's very curious...very curious indeed."

"Sorry, but what's curious?" Harry asked looking a little concerned. Illya stepped a bit closer, also interested to know what was curious about Harry's new wand.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It just so happens that the phoenix whose feather is in your wand gave a second feather. One other and it is curious how you should be destined for this wand when its brother gave you that scar." Here, Ollivander lifted a section of Harry's hair and Illya got a clear view of Harry's scar, but the oddest thing was, the more she focused on it, the more she felt something from it.

Ollivander moved away from Harry and walked over to Illya. She stopped focusing on Harry's scar, but now that she's taken notice of it, it wouldn't go away, kinda like when you've looked at a picture a hundred times and then one day you just notice that it's crooked and so now you can never unnotice it's crookedness again.

"Oh yes, another new student destined for Hogwarts. I don't believe I've outfitted your parents before." Ollivander stated as the measuring tape started taking various measurements. Illya couldn't tell why, but being around Ollivander just creeped her out.

"Yeah, I'm a first in the family...so what do measurements have to do with wands?" Illya asked trying to make some conversation.

"It has everything to do with it." He replied reaching for a box as Illya stood there not seeing how that answered her question, but thought better than to ask for a clearer explanation.

"Here, Cherry and unicorn hair. Nine inches. Quite sturdy. Give it a wave." He handed her the wand, but the moment she placed her hand on it, the wand sent a zap through all of her magic circuits, the feeling was like getting shocked by static electricity all over her body at once and then the wand flew straight away from her hand, flying into the back of the shop.

"How very curious" Ollivander stated looking a bit excited. Unfortunately, Illya wasn't feeling the same at the moment. "It seems as though you will be a difficult customer, but worry not we've never failed in supplying a wizard or witch with a wand."

So Illya continued trying different wands, some of the wands had been with a dragon heartstring and others with unicorn hair. It seemed that they had gone through the entire shop and Illya was not happy about it. Getting shocked over and over hurt damn it!

Just as Illya was about to suggest they give up, Ollivander hummed to himself and then disappeared into the back. Illya looked towards Hagrid and Harry, but the shrug of their shoulders told her they didn't know what to do either. About a minute or two later, Ollivander came out carrying a worn out box.

"This is the last wand that I have. It's a one of a kind as there's no other like it. The core is of an extinct magical creature known as a homunculus. The wood is Evergreen and it's ten inches long. Good for conjuration." Ollivander opened the box. Hearing that the core was a homunculus frightened Illya slightly and raised a question in her mind. If they found out she was a homunculus would they dissect her to make more wands?

"What's a homunculus?" Harry asked, looking curious.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that as I'm not too sure myself," Ollivander said

"Aye, even I don' know too much 'bout them. They went extinct before I was born and very little books even mention them." Hagrid supplied.

"But enough about that, I'm very interested to see if this wand will accept young Illyasviel as it's owner." With that, Illya took the wand expecting the shock to happen again and was pleasantly surprised when it didn't. Instead, there was a feeling of bliss as if she was reunited with a long lost friend or relative.

"I see we have a match. Curious that out of all the years I've had that wand, it never has chosen a wizard or witch until now. It seems that I can expect great things out of you as well Ms. Einzbern." And with that she paid and the trio was on their way. As she walked with them, a horrifying thought struck her. She never told him her name. She looked back to see Ollivander waving with a smile and closed eyes. Shivering, she wondered what else he knew about her.

By now it was evening and the sun was close to setting. Hagrid led them back to the Leaky Cauldron and turned around to face them.

"Well, now that shoppin's all done, how about we get somethin' teh eat?." Hagrid asked, to which they both agreed that some food would be great.

Inside the Leaky Cauldron, they were able to get dinner and just chat the evening away. They went from Harry's fame, to which Illya was surprised to hear about especially since that fame didn't get to his head, unlike some other pale, blond-haired kid, to things are their list and Hogwarts. Towards the end of the evening, Hagrid handed both of them tickets and explained about how it was for the Hogwarts train for September and then it was time for the trio to separate.

"Now remember Harry, if the Dursleys give yeh any trouble, send yer owl with a letter to me." Harry thanked Hagrid for all his help and said that he'd make sure to send Hedwig if problems arose.

Hagrid then turned to Illya and noticing that she didn't have a train ticket asked "Aren't yeh headin' back to yer folks? This is the last train for the night."

"Well, you see, they didn't take a liking to the fact that I'm a witch and they don't want me around right now," Illya said while looking downcast before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see that the hand belonged to Harry. He was giving her a sympathetic look.

"I know what you mean, both my aunt and uncle also hate me for being a wizard. Looks like we both have it rough, but hey at least things should start to get better, after all, we both have a place to belong now."

"You have no idea," Illya thought to herself before giving a little smile towards Harry. "Thanks, Harry. I'm glad that we're friends."

"Me too."

"ALL ABOARD! LAST CALL!" They heard the conductor shout out calling all of the stragglers to get on.

"Looks like I got to go. See you two at Hogwarts!" Harry said as he trudged to the train while waving them off. Both Hagrid and Illya waved towards Harry as he left.

"So what do you plan on doin' now if you can' go home?" Hagrid asked with concern laced in his words.

"Well, to be honest, I was going to see if I could work some kind of deal with Tom, but I was wondering if I could perhaps come and stay at Hogwarts."

"Hmmm, I'd have teh ask Professor Dumbledore." Hagrid thought for a second more "I know the Professor wanted this package as soon as possible, but I'm sure he'd understand if I stayed one more day. Jus' can' leave a student alone."

Speaking of a certain package, Illya looked around and almost cheered when she realized not many people were out and about right now. She turned to look at Hagrid and felt bad about what she was about to do, but it was necessary if she wanted to live. It was now or never.

"Hey Hagrid, I have a couple more things that I want to ask about."

"Well, no need to hesitate, ask away," Hagrid said turning to look at her and as he did so, Illya activated her mystic eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

When it came to Illya's mystic eyes, they were unfortunately not the strongest and so it took a little bit before her mystic eyes could bind someone hence the little questioning session.

"What is it about Slytherin that makes it that all of the bad wizards and witches come out of there?"

"Honestly, I'm not too sure. Slytherin is known for cunning and ambition and a lot of bad wizards and witches are ambitious abou' power and they're cunning when it comes to gettin' power...so maybe that's why?" Hagrid answered although he sounded uncertain about it.

"I see. Are there any other schools besides Hogwarts?"

"Aye, there's magic schools all over. There's one in Northern Europe called Durmstrang as well as in other parts of the world."

"That's interesting to hear. Do they also sort their students the same way Hogwarts does?" Illya considered putting more power into her mystic eyes. She didn't know why, but it seemed as if her mystic eyes didn't affect Hagrid.

"As far as I know, Hogwarts is the onl-" Hagrid suddenly broke eye contact with Illya and looked around. Spotting no one he turned back to Illya.

"Come on we should hurry on out of here." Frustrated that their eye contact had been broken, Illya tried once again to make the connection.

"How come? We aren't in any rush."

"Jus' now, did you to see any light or somethin' strange goin' on behind me?" Hagrid asked looking serious. On seeing Illya's confused face, Hagrid concluded that she hadn't seen anything.

"Perhaps, it was jus' my imagination" Hagrid said in an uncertain tone while still looking around them.

"Is something wrong?" Illya asked innocently

"Nah, it jus' felt like someone shot a spell at me, but it's been a long day so maybe I just need teh drink somethin' at the Leaky Cauldron." Hagrid nodded to himself convinced that the day had just gotten to him and all he needed was a drink.

They both made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron in relative silence. Despite Hagrid telling himself he imagined it, he kept his eyes open in case there was someone who had shot at him and Illya was fuming a little on the inside.

'Why didn't my mystic eyes work,' Illya thought to herself. 'Do all wizards and witches have resistance to my mystic eyes or is it just a select few like Hagrid.' The fact that Hagrid had no idea what just happened told Illya that he had some kind of resistance and if that was the case, things were going to be a whole lot harder.

'At least I put a contingency plan in place,' She hoped that Professor Dumbledore would allow her to stay at Hogwarts. There was the issue of her not being an actual student, but she figured that she could just say that there might have been some mistake, after all, this couldn't be the first time a new student was missed.

When they had gotten back to the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid decided that he'd get a drink and Illya bid him goodnight and went to bed. Originally she had wanted to read through the book that she had but wasn't able to stay awake since she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. Illya was awoken the next morning by a knock on her door.

She glanced out of the window as she got out of bed and guessed the time to be around eight. Already guessing as to who was at the door, she opened it and sure enough, Hagrid was there with a letter in his hand.

"Mornin' Illya." Hagrid greeted her with a smile.

"Good morning to you as well" Illya replied back and then looked at the letter in his hand "What's that you got there?"

"Oh, this" Hagrid said bringing the letter out in front of him, "I wrote Professor Dumbledore last night and he sent a letter earlier this mornin'. Says he'll come around to meet with ya."

Illya frowned at that information. If she remembered correctly, Professor Dumbledore was the headmaster of Hogwarts so why would he be coming to meet her? Guessing that it was probably some sort of formality, she shrugged it off and went with Hagrid to get breakfast. Since Dumbledore was supposed to be coming by in the morning, they both agreed that it was best to stay at the Leaky Cauldron. Illya went back to her room to read the book that she got while Hagrid stayed downstairs to chat with old acquaintances.

The book itself wasn't very long, being a total of about fifty pages. Most of what it stated was the same as what Sella had told Illya when she had asked about it. The only thing was that the book went more in-depth with what was happening in the wizarding world and it wasn't until the end that Illya noticed a major inconsistency with what Sella had told her.

In "The War with the Magi" it stated that the wizards had won the war. Even though the magi had more firepower, the wizard's superior tactics and numbers pushed them back. Then the magi created a cursed contract and tricked the wizarding world into signing the contract. It then went on to say that anyone that got themselves involved with the other would suffer from this curse, but it didn't specify what exactly this curse was or how "involved" one had to be for it to take effect.

Putting the book down, Illya laid back on her bed thinking about what she had just read. According to Sella, it was the magi who had won and the wizards made the contract but the book claimed that the wizards won and the magi had created the contract. She had no idea what to believe. If she was being honest with herself, she would have sided with the mages winning and there was absolutely NO WAY that she was being biased. Absolutely none.

However she found it difficult to believe that the magi would have given up on studying the wizards, but at the same time, she wasn't entirely convinced that the wizards were stupid enough to sign a cursed contract. It mentioned that they were tricked, but the book didn't mention how. Everything about this whole war seemed suspicious to her as if both sides were leaving vital information out.

It was while Illya was deep in these thoughts that she heard a knock on her door. She got back up and made her way over and opened it. In front of her was Hagrid, but there was another person that was behind him that Illya was looking at. He was a tall elderly man with half-moon spectacles and a purple robe.

Hagrid stepped to the side so that the man and Illya could see each other better. "Illya this is Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore, this is Illyasviel Von Einzbern."

"Pleasure to meet you, Headmaster Dumbledore" Illya greeted him with her usual curtsy.

"What a pleasure to meet you as well and Professor while do fine." He reached into a pocket in his robe and pulled out some kind of candy before popping one out and eating it and then offered her one as well "Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"Lemon drop?" Illya asked taking the candy and trying it. It definitely tasted lemony.

"Yes. They're a muggle type of candy that I've taken a liking to. In fact, I would have been here earlier, but I'm afraid that the candy shop I usually frequent had run out and so I had to go all over London looking for some."

"Uh-huh," Illya said as she took the lemon drop. She wasn't quite sure what to make out of the headmaster. A part of her saw him as a bit senile, but another part of her was giving off signal warnings that this man was a force to be reckoned with.

"Well I've heard about your situation from Hagrid and I thought that while I was out that I might take the liberty of perhaps conversing with your parents to see if I could change their minds." Illya cursed in her head, racing for any excuse that would seem feasible for why her parents didn't exist.

She hadn't expected him to try to meet her fake parents. "But alas, I could not. They were very adamant that we stay away from them."

Illya blinked once. Then twice. She narrowed her eyes at the headmaster. Was he lying? Did he pretend to visit them? That's when it hit her. He wasn't late because of some candy, he was doing a background check, but if that was the case why is he going along with the lie? What angle was he playing at?

"Well, what shoul' we do then?" Hagrid asked concerned for Illya "We can' jus' leave her to live alone here."

"And I assure you we won't" Dumbledore then turned to look at Illya "As Headmaster of Hogwarts, I can guarantee that we can give you a place to stay at Hogwarts until the start of term if you so wish."

On the outside, Illya displayed a look of excitement, but on the inside, she was distrustful "Oh that's wonderful. Thank you so much, Professor Dumbledore."

"Of course." He turned to Hagrid "Hagrid if you wouldn't mind, the lemon drops seemed to have left me with a parched throat, could you get me some water from Tom."

"O' course, professor" Hagrid looked at Illya "Woul' you like somethin' as well?"

"No thanks Hagrid" And with that Hagrid had left leaving Illya alone with Dumbledore. She considered her options, she could spill everything to Dumbledore, but she had the feeling that that was what he wanted and so that wasn't an option. Plus that look in his eyes told her that he knew she was lying, but for some reason, he wasn't calling her out on it. If that was the case, then she wasn't going to say anything unless he did first.

"I'm sorry about the way my parents treated you, but please don't hold it against them, they're simply stressed out right now with the whole situation." Illya watched him trying to gauge a reaction.

"No worries. Some muggles just need time to come to terms that something as great as magic exists, after all, I'm sure this discovery turned their whole world upside down." He smiled at her and she swore that he was enjoying himself right now as if it was some kind of game and if he saw this as a game, she was as sure as hell not going to let him win.

"That I'm sure it did," Illya said with a small smile. There was a second or two of silence before Dumbledore spoke again.

"They really didn't like it when I corrected them a told them that I was a wizard and not a magus." Had Illya, not of suspected Dumbledore of knowing, that might have caused her to react, but right now she was determined to come up on top of this little exchange.

"I know what you mean, I've tried telling them that I was a witch and not a magus, but they never seem to listen," Illya said giving a sort of exasperated look.

"Oh, I'm impressed. Hardly any new students to magic know that there's a difference between the two."

Illya started to berate herself. She had screwed up and was now trying to think of a way to cover herself. "I used to play a couple of nerdy games with some friends and there were always different classes like a witch, sorcerer, magus, shaman, and other things and so I just assumed that there was a difference."

"Oh, I see. That would indeed explain it." She looked up at him, but the infuriating smile and glint in his eyes told her that he didn't buy it. Fortunately, Hagrid had come in with a cup of water for Dumbledore.

"Here ya go, Professor," Hagrid said handing Dumbledore the cup.

"Ah, many thanks Hagrid." He then proceeded to drown the cup. "Now then I don't mean to rush you two, but we should get back. There are many things that I need to take care of before the start of the term."

With that, both Illya and Hagrid started to pack their things to get going. The entire time Illya was packing, she was trying to think of what his motives could be. Hagrid seemed to be an open book so he hadn't told Hagrid about his suspicions. It looked like Dumbledore suspected her of being a magus, but then why allow her to attend Hogwarts? What does he have to gain from this?

The only thing that she could think of was that Dumbledore was curious to see what this supposed curse did, but would that alone really convince him to let someone who could potentially harm his students into Hogwarts? She wasn't too sure and determined that she would just have to keep her guard up when around Dumbledore.

After they had gathered their things, they met with Dumbledore in Hagrid's room. They were going to use some kind of magic called apparition to reach a town called Hogsmeade where another Professor named McGonagall would pick them up with a carriage. They gathered around Dumbledore who told them to grab his arm and they did.

A moment later found Illya throwing up her breakfast into a nearby bush. She was glad that they were having lunch at the castle otherwise that would have come up with breakfast as well.

"Never...again" Illya stated a bit annoyed at seeing Dumbledore's bemused expression. As Illya recovered from appariting, she looked around and noticed that they were in the middle of a little quaint village. There were cottages and shops with thatched roofs all around. As they made their way to the outskirts of the village, Hagrid and Dumbledore would point at the different shops and described what each one held.

They passed by Zonko's Joke Shop and Honeydukes both places Illya's inner child wanted to check out and so she made a mental note of where they were. The last shop they passed was The Three Broomsticks before they reached a carriage, being pulled by a black, skeletal-like horse with leathery wings.

"Ah yes, I see that Professor McGonagall was able to get the carriage ready. Well, shall we get on then." Dumbledore led the way to the carriage where they both got inside. It was a tight fight with Hagrid, but they somehow made it all work out. As the horses pulled the carriage, Illya looked out the window observing the surroundings and marveling at all the magical creatures that were about.

While Illya was watching the scenery, Dumbledore and Hagrid chatted about the coming new school year and the finishing preparations before the start of term. It was only a short while later that they reached Hogwarts. Illya wasn't sure what she thought the school would look like, probably some kind of tall tower, what she didn't expect was to see a gigantic castle there. It easily surpassed the castle that her family-owned in Germany. To think that she'd be living here for the next year excited her before she realized that due to the size of the castle, it'd make finding that one package even harder than before.

They climbed out of the carriage and as they passed the thestrals, Illya reached out her hand to pet it. As she pulled away from the thestral, it decided to nuzzle her hand. Illya giggled from the ticklish feeling. She turned back and saw both Dumbledore and Hagrid share a look of concern between them. Illya had no idea why they shared that look, but considering the fact that neither one said anything, she figured she'd just ignore it for now.

"I would have liked to have introduced you to your professors while you were here, but I'm afraid that most of them are out for summer break. They only ones that are here right now are professors McGonagall, Snape, and Madam Pomfrey." Dumbledore stated as he led Illya and Hagrid through the front doors, down a little ways and through a second set of doors on the right.

The next room that Illya entered was breathtaking as the room itself was giant with four tables and towards the front was a podium with a table behind it were two other people were sitting, but what really got Illya's attention was the ceiling. It was lit up with hundreds of candles that illuminated the ceiling which showed the sky outside, yet Illya couldn't feel the warmth that the sun gave or the burning sensation that would happen if she was looking at the sun directly. She briefly wondered if the same feats could be accomplished if mages were more cooperative with each other like the wizarding world was. Captivated by the way magecraft was being used, she hadn't noticed when she was standing in front of the other two professors.

"Professor Dumbledore, would you mind explaining why we have a student here gaping around like a fish on land before the school term," Illya frowned and looked at the man who spoke. She guessed that black must have been his favorite color, after all, he wore all black and had greasy black hair with black eyes. If she was drunk, she could have mistaken him for an over-grown bat.

"While we shouldn't be insulting our students," The green-robed witch spoke while shooting the other man with a disapproving look to which he scoffed at "I must also ask why we have a student coming this early."

"Ah yes, I'm sure you two have many questions about this arrangement, but let us talk over lunch. I, for one, am feeling quite starved." With that they sat around the table. It was just Illya, Dumbledore, the green witch which Illya learned was Professor McGonagall, and the bat professor otherwise known as Snape. At some point, Hagrid left muttering about some pet named Fluffly.

For the rest of lunch, Illya recounted her fake backstory with Dumbledore supporting the claims that seemed a bit more dubious to the two professors. She told them about how she was abandoned by her biological parents at an early age and then adopted by a muggle family and from there, she displayed accidental magic and her family covered it up. Illya retold about how she got the Hogwarts letter and tried to find something about it in the library before more accidental magic happened and a fellow wizard gave her a portkeyed boot to the Leaky Cauldron and how her parents didn't want her back again. As the story was being told, Illya kept a watch on their reactions. It was easy to see that Snape didn't believe a word of it and neither did McGonagall. Professor McGonagall mentioned about how she never sent a letter out to an Illyasviel Von Einzbern. This caused Dumbledore's eyes to twinkle as he summoned some book from thin air. He opened it to a random page and showed it to McGonagall. She was surprised to find Illya's name in there and decided that her old age must be catching up to her.

Illya spared a glance at Dumbledore. She knew for a fact now that Dumbledore knew she was lying, but why was he covering for her? It frustrated her to no end and decided that until she could figure out why Dumbledore was helping her, she would be suspicious of him. She entertained the idea of revealing herself as a magus to Dumbledore, but the fact that Dumbledore hadn't called her out on it yet made her think that Dumbledore himself wasn't positive that she was a magus and if that was the case, then there was no reason for her to reveal herself.

After lunch, Dumbledore asked McGonagall to lead Illya to her room that she would be staying in for the rest of the month. On their way there, McGonagall went on explaining the school rules, described the other teachers, and other various things. Illya listened with half an ear as the other part of her looked on with fascination at the moving pictures, stairwells and the visible ghosts. Illya wasn't quite sure how she was suppose to find her way around the castle, they had gone up and down various flights of stairs and at one point had to jump from one to the next, walked through multiple corridors and even had to ask a painting to move out of the way, but somehow in someway, Professor McGonagall made it to Illyas room. For a moment, Illya thought that McGonagall had just been walking around aimlessly until they found it, but whatever works, works in Illya's mind.

"Now, where you able to get all of that or is there a question that you might have?" Professor McGonagall asked looking down at Illya with a stern expression.

"No, although is there a map of this place? It's kind of confusing." McGonagall gave her a sympathizing look.

"I'm afraid we don't. Most of the time you can ask one of the paintings and they'll point you in the right direction." Illya thanked her and opened her room and was about to enter when McGonagall stopped her.

"One last thing I should make very clear. The third floor corridor is STRICTLY off limits. I trust that you will avoid going there." Illya turned with a slight frown on her face. Is that where the package is? Illya thought to herself, but that didn't make any sense to her as in her opinion the safest place for the package would be somewhere on Dumbledore's person or in his office but it was just an opinion.

"Understood," Illya responded, "although if I may ask, what is on the third floor corridor?"

"Nothing that a student needs to be concerned with." And with that McGonagall was on her way.

Well, if nothing else, that clue gave Illya a starting point at least and so her month at Hogwarts began.


	4. Chapter 4

During her stay at Hogwarts, Illya found most of her time at either the library, trying to get to the third floor corridor, or in the potions classroom. Considering how much time had passed since the last servant death, Illya thought that it was about time for the next servant to die and then following the next death, her symptoms would start to show as her body would begin to fail her.

So to counteract that possibility, Illya spent the time in the library looking in the medical section for something that could alleviate the symptoms that she would be having. It took the whole day before she found something, but she considered that time well worth spent. The book talked about an upgraded version of the pepperup potion called the giddyup potion. Copying down the recipe to make the potion, she made her way into the dungeons. Once Illya had reached Snape's classroom, she gave a knock.

"Come in." came Snape's drawling voice from behind the door. Illya opened the door and saw the professor at his desk scribbling something down with a quill.

"Can I help you?" asked Snape in a bored manner. He was still scribbling something on his desk.

Illya walked up and pointing to the page with the giddyup potion on it, said "I was coming to see if I could give this potion a shot."

"Absolutely not." came his swift reply as he merely glanced at the page. "Now, if that's all, I trust you can see yourself out."

"Is there any reason as to why not?"

"One must be very careful in when it comes to potion making for it is a subtle science and an exact art. Should you mess up in the slightest, as you first-years are prone to do, then the consequences could be disastrous. So, seeing as how you dunderheads have enough difficulty with the easier potions, why should I allow you to try to create a third year potion?"

Illya bristled at his comment. If there was something she hated, it was being looked down on, especially if it was a subject she knew well. Considering how close alchemy and potion making were, Illya bet she could craft potions better than students in their seventh year. She wanted to tell him off for underestimating her, but thought better of it, instead it would be better to prove him wrong.

"Fine. Then what if I started with a first-year potion and when you see that it surpasses your expectations, then I move up to the second year potion and when I, again, surpass any expectations you hold, then I move on to the third potion."

Judging from the facial expression Snape was making, Illya knew she ticked him off. "If just to see the humiliation on your face when you ultimately fail, I agree." Snape got out of his chair and started writing on the blackboard. When he was done, Illya saw that he had written out the ingredients and quantity needed as well as the steps for brewing the potion.

"Here you go. If you are as proficient as you make yourself seem to be, then this potion should hold no difficulty for you." He sat back down and went back to whatever he was doing before.

Illya started on the potion and just as Snape had said, with her level of expertise, she had no difficulty. Finishing the potion, she put some of it in a bottle and brought it up to Snape. Seeing that she was done, he scrutinized the potion, looking for even the smallest mistake that could have been made. Finding none, he conjured up a rat and shoot some fire at it, just enought to give it some light burns. He then uncorked the bottle and dumped it's contents onto the rat and was displeased to see that the rat healed. He was even further displeased with the smug look she wore as she flipped some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Fine. Let's see if you can accomplish this potion then." He erased the board and wrote down a new one. True to the agreement they made, he wrote down a second year potion. The one that the students made to pass their second year exams.

Illya started to work on her potion, but instead of Snape going back to what he had been doing before he decided to watch her make this potion instead. He looked at everything she was doing, from the weighing and the cutting, to the stirring and heat management. Unfortunately for Snape, Illya had no problems with it. In fact, it looked as if she had been brewing potions for a long time. He narrowed her eyes at her, feeling a bit more justified that he remained suspicious of her.

At the end Illya, did the same thing and brought the potion up to Snape. This time, instead of abusing some kind of summoned creature, Snape opened the bottle and drank it himself. The only reason he did this is because he saw her do everything flawlessly and he begrudgingly accepted the fact that Illya had potential as a potion maker when the effect took place and he could see into the darkest parts of his classroom. He turned back to Illya.

She could tell by how angry Snape was that she passed. He stared angerly at her and then she felt a kind of pain in her head. Ever since the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War, Angra Mainyu had been conversing with Illya in the form of Irisviel to breed hate and resentment towards Kiritsugu. Jubstacheit was aware of what was happening but let it continue since it aligned his goals, but once he realized that Angra Mainyu was trying to have his own control over Illya, he decided that enough was enough and made it so that Angra Mainyu wouldn't be able to communicate with her anymore by empowering the magic circuits within her. Next, he taught Illya that should Angra Mainyu try to communicate with her again, she should send prana throughout her circuits to make sure Angra Mainyu wouldn't be able to speak with her. After that, whenever Angra Mainyu would try to talk with Illya, she would experience some kind of pain similiar to that of a headache. The same kind of pain that she was feeling right now. So, with the thought that Angra Mainyu was trying to speak with her to manipulate her to go back to the war, Illya sent Prana to her magic circuits relieving the pain that was happening.

With that out of the way, she refocused her attention on Snape and couldn't help but smirk at his bewildered expression. She really had outdone herself on that potion.

From the exchange that just happened, Snape came to the conclusion that Illya was no ordinary student. She had repelled his Legilimency and was now smirking at him as if daring him to try something else. Things were starting to fall into place in Snape's mind as to who Illya was. Clearly she wasn't a student as no student should be able to repeal Legilimency especially if he was the one doing it and the fact that she did told him that she was a powerful witch as well. Perhaps she was using a polyjuice potion to hide her true appearance. Combine all these thoughts into one and add the fact that the Philosopher's Stone was being kept at the castle lead to only one conclusion. Illyasviel Von Einzbern is a death eater after the stone. It was the only explanation that made sense in his mind. She must of known who exactly he was as a death eater and that's why she's being cocky with him. It was the only conclusion he could think of at the moment, except none of it made sense. There's no way a death eater could trick Dumbledore nor was there a single death eater that could access the school registry only the Headmaster and the Deputy can access it. There was a picture, but not all of the pieces were here. He narrowed his eyes at her. For now, he would inform Dumbledore of his thoughts and keep an eye on "Illya" if that is even her real name.

Illya was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. She had been standing in front of Snape's desk for a minute now, waiting for him to say that she passed. When she saw him narrow his eyes at her, the thought came that perhaps he was thinking of some way to get out of the deal he made with her. If that was the case, she refused to give him more time to wiggle his way out.

"So, can I move on to the giddyup potion now?" She asked.

"Go ahead." Was his short reply, but as Illya started on the potion, she couldn't help but notice how Snape would suspiciously glance at her. She knew that it would seem suspicious that she would be able to brew as a newly made witch, but she didn't have a choice. The symptoms would happen and she'd have no reason to say why they were recurring, she could order the potion, but that would seem weird to anyone who saw what she purchased, she also could have just stolen the supplies from Snape's cabinet, but thought that wasn't worth it if she ended up being caught.

After having the potion made, she would then spend time between getting to know her way around the castle, the library, and trying to get to the third floor corridor. That third option was cut-off as when she tried to make it there, Snape, for some reason or another was outside of said corridor. Claiming that she was simply lost, he sent her on her way, but now Illya knew that Snape was suspicious of her. She wanted to try again, but this attempt would be at night. She pulled one of her hair strings out and turned it into a Storch Ritter.

Once it was flying around the room, Illya used shared perception to see and hear what her Storch Ritter would see and hear, then she sent it out to the third floor corridor making sure that it was close to the ceiling in case she somehow came across a professor.

The familiar soon found it's way to the third floor corridor, but somehow, as if knowing that something was going to be there, Snape came around the bend with a torch. Keeping her familiar to the shadows, she watched through it's eyes as Snape walked around looking for something. Illya guessed that he put a spell in the vicinity that alerted him when someone was approaching. Realizing that she won't be able to access the corridor until school starts, she brings her familiar back and cancels the spell on it, letting it fall to the floor.

Thus, two weeks went by. She had five giddyup potions that she hasn't used yet, which concerned her as a servant should've died by now. Other teachers had started to arrive, preparing their classrooms for the coming term. Every now and then Illya would go down and meet with Hagrid for tea and he'd show her some of the animals he took care of. Other days she would go to the library and try to find out if there was anything else that could help her.

It was the morning of the start of the third week when Illya became really concerned now. The issue is that she felt no different then how she did almost a month ago, which shouldn't be the case. Considering how no servant seemed to have died within the time period she's been gone, that could only mean one thing. They know she's still alive.

"Ok. So they've found out I'm gone, but they don't know where to find me." Illya thought to herself. She wished now that she hadn't pushed Angra Mainyu back when she was brewing with Snape. As much as she disliked Angra Mainyu, it would have been helpful to know how the war was progressing since for all she knew, they could be on their way to Hogwarts right now.

Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing what was happening and so all she could do was wait with anxiety. The rest of the two weeks passed slowly for her as she was fearing that at any moment a servant or master would jump her from behind. She knew that these fears were unfounded, but it didn't help to ease her anxiety in anyway and so to help distract her from her unease, Illya decided that she would setup a miniature workshop somewhere within the castle.

Nothing too big or fancy like the workshop in Germany, but enough to were she can keep her mind occupied. Right now she had a zero percent chance of getting into the third floor corridor without alerting Snape. She also had been spending a lot of her time in the library, but now that she knew that she wasn't going to be absorbing any servants anytime soon, she would space her time out in there as she hadn't been able to find anything that could help her except unicorn blood.

She considered using unicorn blood, but she didn't think it was a wise idea since even though, it would keep her alive, she would need to consume it on a weekly basis or suffer dying and quite frankly she had no idea where to even get unicorn blood.

During her stay at Hogwarts, Illya would be wandering around the castle when for some inexplict reason, Illya would just be minding her own business and all of a sudden, she would feel some kind of chill as if ice water had been dumped on her. It annoyed her that she couldn't identify what was causing the chill feeling that she randomly got. To make matters worse, on some days water balloons would just randomly fly at her from around the corner, soaking her through. If school was in session, she would have guessed it to be a prank by some students, but the fact that it was only her and the teachers ruled that theory out...unless it was a teacher that was pranking her. Out of all the teachers she had met, the only one who seemed like they would prank her would be Professor Flitwick, but even then it didn't seem reasonable to her that he would do something so childish. The only other thing it could have been were wraiths and considering how Illya has zero spiritual affinity, she wouldn't be able to perceive them. The main issue with that though was that Illya doubted Dumbledore would allow any dangerous thing to reside in Hogwarts.

Especially if it's a being that could consume the souls and minds of their students. Yeah, no way that would ever happen. Still, it irked her that somehow in someway, someone was pelting her with water balloons. The pranks didn't stop there either, one time a suit of armor that Illya was positive was meant for decoration came to life and started to chase her around the castle, swinging it's sword in wide, easy to dodge arcs. Illya was sure that it wasn't aiming to harm her, but there was no way she was going to take that chance. After a straight fifteen minute run, the suit all of a sudden stopped and collapsed. Ever since, she's tried to avoid suits of armor.

The moment Illya found her pranker, she swore to murder them dead. Anyways one day, as Illya was dodging the day's random barrage of water balloons, she happened to run straight through a classroom door and slammed it shut just as the balloons were about to hit her. She slumped down to the ground with an exasperated sigh and then looked up to see that she was being looked at by Professor McGonagall.

"Good afternoon, miss Von Einzbern. Might I ask, why you rushed in here?" Judging from the look on McGonagall's face, Illya could guess that she already knew why.

Picking herself off the ground, Illya dusted herself off trying to act a bit more dignified. "It just so happens, that some prankster decided to try to pelt me with water balloons and so I ran into the first open room that I could."

"Must have been Peeves. I'll make sure to tell either Headmaster Dumbledore or the Bloody Baron to reprimand him. Speaking of which, I do need to see the Headmaster about some certain issues, so if you'll excuse me." With that McGonagall ushered Illya out and locked her room behind her. She then left down the hall heading to wherever Dumbledore's office was.

Illya thought about following her to find out where his office was as well, but considering how she had no excuse to see Dumbledore, she'd be at a loss of how to answer McGonagall should she catch Illya following her. So, instead Illya went back to wandering around the castle. It was weird to her to think that she'd be spending almost a year within these halls. At first, she suspected that she'd only have to stay for a few months, but considering the fact that the war is on pause and that they were looking for her, it would be a better idea to stay and lay low. As she passed another classroom, a thought struck her. If she were to be here for a year, then why not further develop her alchemy skills as well as her familial magecraft and in order to do that, she'd need to build herself a workshop.

She began her search for a suitable room in the dungeons of Hogwarts. If there were to be any empty classrooms with minimal passerbys, the dungeons would be the place to find such a classroom in Illya's mind. As she went about trying to find an empty classroom, she was trying to think of a suitable bounded field to surround her workshop in.

She didn't want it to be anything to be to big or powerful in case some lost student happened to wander into her workshop, but neither did she want it to be so weak that just about anyone can enter with a little effort. It also couldn't be harmful in anyway and needed to avoid detection through magical means. With those requirements in mind, she could only think of two or three bounded fields that she could use and out of them only one seemed feasible. With that out of the way, the only issue left was where she would set up her workshop.

After searching for an hour or two, Illya found the perfect room. The only issue that Illya had with it was the fact that it was located right below Snape's room, but considering how Snape's class was the lowest anyone ever went in the castle, Illya figured it didn't matter. The room was made out of stones and was the only room that wasn't filled with stuff. There were unlit torches inside and so Illya had to grab a lit one from the hall and light the room up. The place was full of cobwebs and dust. On the back wall was a blackboard and some pieces of chalk.

Off to the left side was a walk-in closet that was about a fourth the size of the room. There was some mold growing in the walk-in closet, but Illya could take care of that. Seeing on how this room wasn't being used and Illya doubted that it had ever been used, she decided to first spurce up the place. When it came to workshops, Illya preferred them to be organized and clean. Some time later after she was dusting and got rid of the mold, Illya took the chalk that was in the room and started to inscribe sigils on the walls, ceiling, and door.

These sigils that Illya was using is what created the bounded field. They consisted of an outer circle and an inner circle. In between the two were six runes that went around the entirety of the area. There was a six-pointed star in the middle of the inner circle and each point had a line that went past the inner circle and in between the runes to be connected with the outer circle.

What the sigils did was make her workshop appear to everyone else as the Leaky Cauldron appeared to muggles, so unless a person knew that her workshop was here, it would remain hidden. Once the sigils were placed throughout the room, Illya decided to furnish it. With what though, she wasn't entirely sure. The purpose of this workshop was mainly to further her alchemical talents using the new resources that the wizards seem to have. As a side project, Illya was going to work on her Storch Ritters and try to shape them into something else or make them stronger, faster, that sort of thing.

It also crossed her mind to try to mix the Wizarding World's magecraft with the Moonlit World's magecraft, after all, that supposed curse had activated yet and at this point, Illya started to think of it as some sort of boogeyman to scare people away from interacting with each other. However, this wasn't something she wanted to test out on herself and so determined that if nothing happened once she obtained whatever package Hagrid had delivered, then she would try to mix the two form's of magecraft. Perhaps the Root could finally be reached by utilizing both forms, but that was a thought for another time.

Illya sat in the middle of the room. Considering that she was mainly going to develop her alchemical skills gave her a good idea as to what she would need. She started to envision multiple shelves within the table with varying sizes of bottles on them. She could see two to three different cauldrons in the middle of the room, each of varying sizes with a fire pit underneath each one. Off to a corner, a case full of alembics, crucibles, a mortar and pestle, and retorts with their stands. A sink would be close to the door with some soap. Various types of pure metal bars would be stacked to the side, ready for use.

Boxes would be placed on the floor inside the closet, each one filled with different kinds of elements and ingredients. Smiling to herself, Illya started to charge her magic circuits, if anyone where to be watching they would see red lines appear all around her body forming a pattern. When Illya had the right amount of prana needed, she used her wish-granting trait and projected her imagination into reality. Where before, the room was filled with nothing but the stone that made it and the chalkboard, it now had all the various types of alchemical equipment and ingredients that Illya had imagined in her head.

While the objects themselves wouldn't last forever, it should last until the time Illya was going to leave. With that out of the way, Illya would just need to find some paper and writing utensils to record her progress. Thus, the rest of her two weeks went by as she spent time in the library and her workshop and before she knew it, the date became September first. The start of the school term.


	5. Chapter 5

It was the morning of September first, the start of the school term and this particular morning found Illya straightening out her uniform in front of a mirror when a resounding knock came at her door. Doing a last double check to make sure she looked fine, Illya walked up to the door and opened it to see McGonagall standing there with her usual stern expression.

"Good morning, Professor McGonagall. Is it almost time for the sorting ceremony?" Yesterday, Illya had spoken with both Dumbledore and McGonagall about what was to happen this morning.

"Good morning to you as well, Miss Von Einzern and yes, the sorting ceremony will begin shortly." McGonagall looked Illya up and down before giving her a small smile. "It's good to see that you've decided to be presentable. Let's be on our way then, the other first years are waiting in a side room."

Illya wasn't exactly sure how she felt as she walked with McGonagall to join with the other first years. A portion of her was excited that she was going to finally be attending a school of sorts, it was one of the things she's wanted to do and another was nervous simply because this was still new to her. Over the month, she's become a bit more accustomed to the Wizarding World however, she hasn't seen much of their version of magecraft as the professors were too busy with some project that they were working on to entertain her.

McGonagall continued to lead Illya down a couple of hallways and up and down stairs until they were in front of the doors that would open to the Great Hall. McGonagall motioned for Illya to join the other first years in a side room as she went into the Great Hall. Illya did as instructed and noted the excitement that was over all of the first years. They hadn't even noticed her enter. Looking around, she quickly found a face that she recognized and moved over to him. Tugging on his sleeve to get his attention, she noted that he seemed to have made a second friend with a ginger haired boy.

"Illya!" Harry exclaimed happily, "I tried looking for you in the crowd, but I didn't see you. I was starting to wonder what happened."

"You probably couldn't find me since Professor McGonagall just led me here." Illya responded before looking behind Harry at his new friend, "Who's this? A friend of yours Harry?"

"Yeah I'm Ron Weasley. So, uh, why are your eyes red? I've never seen that eye color before." Ron asked

"Oh they're hereditary. I was born with them. By the way, I'm Illyasviel Von Einzbern," Illya greeted with a slight bow this time.

"Are you from another one of those pureblood families, like that git Malfoy?" Illya wasn't quite sure what Ron meant by pureblood, but going by what she knows, Malyfoy is from some kind of royal or prestigious family and royal families back in the day would marry within their own family to keep their bloodline pure. Illya also has observed that the Wizarding World didn't follow or keep up with the muggles as they saw them as inferior and so they wouldn't know about certain dangers that certain practices can carry.

So knowing all of this, Illya incorrectly drew the conclusion that pureblood families are royal families in the Wizarding World that practice incest to keep their bloodline pure.

"No, I'm not from a pureblood family and to be blunt, I find the concept rather disturbing." Illya responded to Ron.

"Oh, is that so?" Illya, Ron and Harry turn around to see Draco standing there with a dark expression on his face and his lackeys behind him. "Here I was about to invite you to befriend some ACTUAL wizards and witches, but now that I find out you're just a filthy mudblood. Guess it saves me some trouble."

Draco turned to leave with his lackeys. Harry and Illya shared a look, not quite sure what mudblood meant, but Ron looked absolutely lived.

"Better muggleborn than to be a spineless twat!" Ron almost shouted in rage at Draco.

"Tell me Weasley. Do you really find that much joy begging on the streets? Well, I guess that is what separates me from you." It looked like Ron wanted to beat the crap out of Draco, but McGonagall had just come in.

"Now, form a line," As she said those words, all of the nervous and excited first years lined up hurriedly. Ron had lined up behind Harry and Illya behind Ron. They were led back into the hall and then through the double doors that led into the Great Hall. When Illya had last been inside the Great Hall, it was completely empty and void of life with the exception of whichever teacher just happened to be there at the time. Now though, it was like night and day. The hall was nearly full to the brim with students from years two to seven. All of the teachers were up at the long table in the front with Dumbledore at the head chair.

The tables held glistening golden plates, utensils and goblets. Illya briefly wondered how the school got it's funding for all of this.

They were eventually led to the front where Professor McGonagall silently placed a stool in front of them. She then placed an old and tattered hat. Illya stared at the hat, unsure if this was some kind of joke that the school was pulling on them when the hat started to move and then sing.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,"

'Would you look at that, it's a mind reader.' Illya thought to herself sarcastically as the hat sung.

"But don't judge on what you see,"

'Too late.'

"I'll eat myself if you can find"

"A smarter hat than me."

Illya briefly thought what that might look like. Challenge accepted.

"You can keep your bowlers black,"

"Your top hats sleek and tall,"

"For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat"

"And I can cap them all."

Illya groaned at the horrible pun.

"There's nothing hidden in your head"

"The Sorting Hat can't see,"

'I WAS JOKING!' Illya thought-screamed to herself and then the full weight of what the sorting hat said sunk in. 'Shit.'

"So try me on and I will tell you"

"Where you ought to be."

Illya was currently wishing that there was some other way to test what house they would be sorted in.

"You might belong in Gryffindor,"

"Where dwell the brave at heart,"

"Their daring, nerve and chivalry"

"Set Gryffindors apart;"

'That house would fit Shirou and saber to a T' Illya thought as she continued to listen to the hat's song. 'Doesn't sound like it'll fit me though.'

"You might belong in Hufflepuff,"

"Where they are just and loyal,"

"Those patient Hufflepuffs are true"

"And unafraid of toil;"

'Considering my parentage, I definitely won't make it there.'

"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind,"

"Where those of wit and learning,"

"Will always find their kind;"

'Doesn't sound too bad, I can see myself being sorted into Ravenclaw.'

"Or perhaps in Slytherin"

"You'll make your real friends,"

"Those cunning folk use any means"

"To achieve their ends."

Despite everything that Illya has heard, Slytherin sounded like the place she belonged...now if only Draco doesn't go there.

"So put me on! Don't be afraid!"

"And don't get in a flap!"

"You're in safe hands (though I have none)"

"For I'm a thinking cap!"

As everyone clapped at the end of the performance, Illya couldn't help but wonder if those last four lines meant that there was no way for the hat to disclose what it sees inside a person's head to anyone. Then McGonagall stepped forward with a roll of parchment and started to call names. As she called names, the kid would go up and try on the hat and then would shout out a house once it determined where that student belonged.

Illya only paid attention to the first person, Hannah Abbott, to see what would happen. Seeing nothing extraordinary, Illya decided to spend time thinking of what memories she should try to block and which ones to show. The only times Illya paid attention to the sorting was when the name of someone she recognized was called. Draco Malfoy went to Slytherin and Harry to Gryffindor. Just on that alone made Illya favor Gryffindor over Slytherin, not because she saw Harry as a friend, but because Harry would be easier to use if they were in the same house.

Eventually, Illya's name was called. Walking up to the hat, Illya didn't have enough memories that showed who she was while hiding the fact that she was a magus and so she hoped that she could just talk to the hat. She walked up, preparing her mental defenses and slipped the hat on. Almost immediately, there was a pain in her head which told her that the hat was trying but couldn't get in.

"The is the first time I've met a student who could block me out," the Sorting Hat whispered in her ears. "Do you mind if I take a peek?"

"I do mind," Illya responded back "Is there a way to be sorted without you poking through my mind?"

"Unfortunately not, but you don't need to worry. I'll never reveal what I see in your mind to anyone."

Illya wasn't sure of how much of that she believed. "What if I told you what house I wanted to be in?"

"You really are stubborn about this. The houses are going to be like family to you and once one has been decided, you can never change it. That's why I need to see inside your mind, to determine which house you'll be most comfortable with in during your time here."

"I still refuse."

The Sorting Hat gave a sigh. "Alright fine, which house do you wish to be in?"

Really, there was only one option as to which house she would choose to go to and it was the house that her little tool was living in as well.

"Gryffindor," Illya whispered to the hat.

"Gryffindor!" The hat shouted out as the Gryffindor table cheered and clapped. She made her way over and sat down next to Harry who gave her a smile. A ginger-haired kid shook her hand, introducing himself as Percy Weasley, the prefect of Gryffindor. The sorting continued on, but the only one Illya bothered to notice was Ron being sorted into Gryffindor. He took the seat on the other side of Harry.

As the sorting came to an end and the last student took their seat, Dumbledore got up to address them.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" Dumbledore sat back down and everybody clapped at Dumbledore's speech.

"Is he a bit mad?" Illya heard Harry ask Percy. She couldn't help but think that Dumbledore was indeed mad as she loaded her plate with all kinds of food. Illya couldn't help but compare the magecraft that the Wizarding World used with the magecraft that the Moonlit World used. For instance, portkeys, apparition, and this food teleporting spell all seemed to be variants of Flash Air or spatial displacement. Potions was similar to alchemy and she was sure that the more she saw, the more that she would be able to find more correlations between the two world's magecrafts.

Illya continued to make more connections between the two when Ron broke her out of her inner thoughts, "I don't know how you can still eat when you're face to face with Nearly Headless Nick's head hanging like that."

She looked at the boy confused before looking in front of her. It was just some random kid and turned back to Ron with a confused face. Ron and everyone around him turned to look in one spot before Harry turned to her.

"You can't see ghosts?" Harry asked her.

"That is odd. I've read that ghosts are visible to every witch and wizard, until they chose to be invisible." this came from a fellow first year girl with bushy brown hair. Perhaps if Illya went digging through her memories, she'd recognize this girl, but right now all she was trying to do was think of a way to explain why she couldn't see wraiths or ghosts as the Wizarding World seemed to call them.

"Maybe it has to do with her eyes? I mean red isn't a natural color." Another random first year spoke up and Illya silently thanked him as she saw a way out.

"It probably does. I never really knew my birth parents and so maybe there was some kind of genetic disorder or something." After having to explain what a genetic disorder was, Illya sunk back into her thoughts a little bit as everyone seemed to be satisfied with the answer. She found it difficult to believe that the wraiths were allowed within the school. More than that she also found it extremely difficult to believe that every witch and wizard had a spiritual affinity. Then there were the wraiths themselves.

The more Illya thought about it, perhaps wraiths aren't exactly the right term. From what she knew, most wraiths don't communicate with people and would suck out their mind and soul, but these beings seemed to communicate and avoided sucking the life out of the students. In a way, she would have thought of them as possibly being similar to heroic spirits in that aspect, but then she would have seen them as she could see the Assassin servant. She honestly had no idea what to think of these beings.

Illya was brought out of her musings a second time as the food suddenly disappeared and was replaced with all manner of desserts. Her eyes lit up on seeing all the different kinds of desserts that she could have. She excitedly reached for the nearest one, a chocolate eclair, and savored the sweetness of it. If everyday was like this, she wouldn't mind pretending to be a kid all the way through graduation. Around her, the students were talking about their families and where they came from.

It was as she was finishing of her eclair and about to reach for some rice pudding that one of the students asked about her own background and so she told them the same backstory that she told the professors.

"So do you remember anything about your birth parents before you were adopted?" Illya paused and put the rice pudding back. That question brought back some painful memories causing her to lose her appetite.

Sensing the change in her mood, Harry moved to change the subject, "A-a-anyways, what do you guys think classes are going to be like?"

"No, it's fine Harry. It's all in the past now so it's not like it matters, but yeah, I do remember a few things." an uncomfortable silence hung around the group for a moment and was dispelled as Dumbledore got up to speak again.

"Ahem, just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Illya notice the look that he gave to a pair of red-headed twins.

'More Weasleys?' Illya thought to herself, 'How many of them are there?'

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors." Illya doubted anyone was going to listen to that rule and based off the expressions of everyone else, she was right.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch." Sports were never Illya's thing and Quidditch was no different, but when she assumed that she was going to be around longer then she originally had planned, she decided that it might be a good idea to learn about the culture a little bit.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"What if we do want to die a very painful death?" Illya asked in a quite voice to Harry as a small joke, but somehow Dumbledore heard her.

"Well, if that's the case then by all means-"

"Professor Dumbledore!"

"I'm just joking my dear Minerva. I'm afraid that corridor is off limits no matter the reason."

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried as he started to give his wand a flick. A golden ribbon flew out and started to form the lyrics that was meant for the song.

"Everyone pick your favorite tune and off we go!"

It was perhaps the worst song Illya has heard in her life, made more so by the fact that everyone was singing at a different beat and so the only way to know what was actually being sung was if you looked at the lyrics. The only good part was how short of a song it was and so it ended rather quickly with exception to the Weasley twins, who were singing as if they were at a funeral. After the song, the new Gryffindors were led to their dormitory by Percy. On the way they encountered Peeves, much to Illya's disdain, and then arrived at a portrait of a fat woman.

"Password?" She asked.

"Caput Draconis," Percy answered. Illya had passed by this painting in her wanderings around the castel, but never knew the password and so this would be her first time entering the Gryffindor common room.

It was a cozy place to be in, filled with red couches and a big fireplace. There were two staircases, one leading up to the boys dorm and the other leading to the girls dorm. They were separated there and so Illya joined the rest of the girls in their dormitory.

Inside of their room were beds with curtains on them. By the side of one of the beds was Illya's luggage. Taking that to be her bed, she made her way over there and started to unpack her belongings into the nearby dresser as the other girls in her room talked. She had been placed with Lavender Brown, Hermione Granger, and Parvati Patil.

"I'm so excited to be here. What about you guys? What classes are you most excited for?" Recalling that this girl was Hermione, Illya looked up and noticed she had the bed directly opposite from hers.

"I'm most excited for divinations. I just wish that we didn't have to wait until our third year to take it." The girl on the right bed said with a sigh. Glancing at her trunk, Illya saw that it belonged to Parvati Patil.

"You too!" The girl on the left, who had to be Lavender Brown, spoke with excitement, "It's such an interesting subject right? To be able to see the future."

"Really now? Divinations?" Hermione made a face that clearly told everyone else that she had a dislike for the subject, "I've read about that subject, seems like a bunch of rubbish to me."

"Oh please, I'm sure you thought magic was a bunch of rubbish until you became a witch." Lavender said.

"Besides, if it really was rubbish then do you think that Dumbledore would allow it to be taught?" Parvati asked, backing up Lavender.

Hermione seemed to be at a bit of a loss because she turned to Illya for support. "What do you think about divinations?"

Illya thought for a moment. She knew for a fact that divinations exists since there have been recordings of the Mystic Eyes of Premonition and the fact that servants with an EX rank in clairvoyance can also see the future, but she also knew that not a lot of magi looked into it and the reason was clear. "While I'm certain that it exists, I have no interest in it since once you know your future, then it becomes fickle and can be changed."

Looking a little put out that Illya believed in divinations, Hermione decided to defend her claim again, "Well, if divinations exists then that means that something is determining our future and that simply can't be."

"Well why not?" Parvati asked, "according to divinations, it's the planets and stars that determine our futures." The three of them continued to argue a bit, but Illya decided to stay out of it as she didn't care one way or the other. Just knowing that she has a future was enough for her. Eventually the three settled down coming to a consensus that they'd have to wait until some kind of prediction was made from a seer and with that argument done, everyone went to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Sunlight streamed in from the window landing on Illya's face effectively waking her up in the morning. She sat up in her bed and drew back the curtains and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, got out to get ready. Hermione had already gotten dressed and had left and it looked like Parvati and Lavender hadn't fully awoken yet. Not caring if they woke up on time, Illya went to shower and change and by the time she had gotten out, the other two had woken up and were rummaging around in the dressers to grab their uniforms.

Greeting them on her way out, Illya went to the common room. In the common room were Harry and Ron, a crowd was looking and whispering about him. It was obviously making Harry uncomfortable, but Illya could see his eyes light up a little bit as he saw her come down the stairs.

"Morning Illya" Harry and Ron greeted her and she greeted them back. They made their way past the staring students and towards the Great Hall for breakfast. The entire time they had people whispering about Harry and pointing in their direction. During breakfast they received their schedules for the school year. Getting around was always difficult, but since Illya had been there for a month now, she was able to navigate through the maze like castle with some difficulty. Once they passed by Ms. Norris, but she left them alone as both Illya and Ms. Norris have a mutual hatred for each other.

Illya was never a cat person and most cats kept their distance from her, but while she was at Hogwarts, Ms. Norris wouldn't leave her alone. The cat seemed to like the fact that Illya hated it for being around and would follow her because of it. Anyway, Illya got fed up with it and one day gave the cat a good hard kick when no one was looking and then ran off before Filch could catch her. He tried to complain to Dumbledore saying that the "she-devil tried to murder his precious ," but since their was a lack of witnesses, Illya got off scot free and so Ms. Norris never went near her again.

During the classes that they had each week, Illya discovered something about herself. She sucked when it came to the Wizarding World magecraft. Whether it was due to her being a magus or not she didn't know. The first charms lesson that they had was about the lumos charm. Professor Flitwick had showed it to them and explained how it came about. He explained how it was one of the simpler charms and asked them to try it. At first no one had been able to cast lumos with the exception of Hermione who received five points for Gryffindor. Professor Flitwick had them keep trying and by the end of the practice session, Illya was one of the few who failed to perform the actual spell.

She considered using her wish-granting trait to simply get the effect, but considering how she needed to charge her circuits, decided against it. Flitwich reassured them that it was natural for a few people to not get the hang of it on the first lesson and encouraged them to keep practising.

The next class, however, was a bit better as Illya found out that she was at least a bit proficient in it. That class was transfigurations. After a strict warning about no fooling around and some note taking, McGonagall gave each of them a match and tasked them with turning said match into a needle. At the end, only two had succeeded. Illya got her match to be silver colored and harder, but it was still in the shape of the match and wasn't at the point of metal hardness. She was only beat by Hermione who had succeeded in the actual transformation from match to needle.

After Transfigurations, the trio went on to defense against the dark arts. To Illya, Professor Quirrell gave off a weird vibe and it didn't help that the weird feeling that Illya got from Harry's scar also came from Quirrell's head. Knowing Harry's story, Illya assumed that maybe powerful curses left a sort of after affect on whoever they're cast on. She thought this had to be the case since Quirrell did have a run in with some vampires. Other then that though, his class didn't seem to be as helpful or informative as Illya originally thought. They didn't practise any spells and only went over theory type stuff.

That's how the week went with some other classes. Astrology was pretty much the exact same as it was in the Moonlit World and Illya was semi-decent with herbology, nothing like with potions or transfiguration but not as bad as she was with charms. One day she had skipped lunch to visit the third-floor corridor. She suspected that with all of the students being at school, Snape wouldn't be able to guard the corridor anymore and to her relief she was right. No one was there and so she tried to go into the corridor, but found it locked. Having suspected this, she had taken a piece of her hair and cut in half and then used that half to form a mini dagger.

She used this dagger and sent it through the keyhole, causing it to break. Making sure that the dagger went back into her pocket, she tried opening the door again only to find that it wouldn't budge. She frowned as she realized that it was magically locked, which meant she'd have to use magecraft to open it or she could just use flash air. Charging her magic circuits, Illya used her wish-granting power to open a portal to the other side of the door only to close it as she saw Cerberus.

'What the hell?' Illya thought to herself 'How do they have Cerberus chained up in there? More importantly, why hasn't it broken out and devoured everyone?' How they were able to summon the Hound of Hades was beyond her. What she needed to do right now was find a way to get around it and if she remembered correctly, you could get past it with either music or something sweet. Considering how she needed to come out that way as well, music seemed to be her only option or she would need to acquire a large amount of sweets to distract it and with that she left, unaware of the invisible set of eyes that watched her.

For the remainder of the week, Illya would spend time with Harry and Ron. She half-assed any assignment she got, only making barely passing remarks, but it wasn't like she cared since this was the only year she'd be staying at the school. The only other notable event that happened was on Friday.

It first started off pretty well, Harry, Ron, and Illya were invited for tea down at Hagrid's after classes, but unfortunately they had a double potions class to take first. So they went on their way there with Ron telling them that Snape was biased to Slytherin and hated Gryffindors. Illya thought that Ron was exaggerating as kids often did, but found out soon enough that Ron had actually understated Snape's hate for Gryffindor.

They had just taken their seats when Snape came in, cape billowing behind him. He eyed the room with a sneer on his face and once he saw that the room was filled, started taking roll call. At Harry's name he gave a pause.

"Ah, yes, Harry Potter, our new celebrity." This prompted Draco and his goons to snigger in the back. He went back to roll call and stopped a second time at Illya's name.

"And then there's Illyasviel Von Einzbern. With what you showed me, this class shouldn't be too difficult and as such, I will only accept perfection." Snape's comment earned Illya a few confused looks from her peers since only a couple people knew about her staying at Hogwarts.

After a short speech of potions, Snape turned to Potter in the same manner that a snake does a mouse. "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Harry glanced at both her and Illya, but Ron didn't know and Illya didn't know how to tell Harry without Snape catching her.

"I don't know sir."

"Tut, tut. Fame clearly isn't everything." As Snape spoke Illya grabbed a piece of paper, normally she would have let Harry suffer Snape's wrath as she would rather not have his attention on her, but she would rather see Snape get upstaged.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" This time Illya wrote the answer down and discreetly handed the slip of paper to Harry, he looked at it and gave a quick thankful smile to her.

"From a goat's stomach." Snape's sneer fell a little as he stared at Harry and Harry stared right back.

"Your right hand Potter. Show me what you have in your right hand." Harry quickly shoved the slip into his pant pocket and opened up his hand to show that he wasn't holding anything.

"Do you think I was born yesterday?" Snape took out his wand and with a flick the slip of paper came out of Harry's pocket. Snape unfolded it to see the answer that Illya had written.

"Cheating are we." His sneer returned. "Five points from Gryffindor." Everyone's face in Gryffindor fell while the Slytherins snickered. The only good thing that occured from that was that Snape was done interrogating Harry and had moved on to the potion that they'd be making. They were to be working in pairs and Illya was paired with Hermione.

"Hey Illya," Hermione greeted her, "From the comment Snape said a little bit ago, I take it you're pretty good at potions?"

"Yeah, when you get down to it, brewing is very similar to cooking." Truthfully Illya has never cooked a day in her life, she always had Sella or Liz prepare her meals, but she assumed cooking was similar enough to brewing.

"Oh, what kind of things do you like to cook? I've personally haven't cooked anything other then mac and cheese and other easy stuff like that, but I do want to expand what I know. It's alway-" Illya sensing that Hermione was about to ramble, tuned her out and when she didn't hear Hermione speak anymore, focused back on her.

"I've cooked a few German dishes before and few more complica-" Illya paused seeing the shocked looked on Hermione's face, "Uh, is something wrong?"

"Oh no, it's just that you're the first person to have ever let me just ramble on like that. It took me by surprise is all." Unsure of how to respond to that, Illya decided to change the subject.

"I see. Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Hermione's eyes lit up as if this was the first time anyone has asked anything of her.

"Please. Ask anything you want."

"Why aren't you in Ravenclaw? You seem like you'd fit better in there." Illya knew she wasn't one to speak about where a person would better fit, but she had her reasons.

"Well, you see, everyone's always told me that I'm intelligent and studious and it's certainly true, but I don't want people to just see me as some kind of walking library. I want people to also know that I have courage and that I am brave, in fact I wish that's how people saw me. My want to be seen as courageous is also the reason that I like being studious too. I don't look to know things just to know them, but to be able to put that knowledge into application. It's good to want to help a friend or loved one that's in danger, but if you don't know what to do, you'll only endanger yourself as well. So I seek knowledge to be able to protect those close to me." Illya didn't know what she was expecting her answer to be, but it certainly wasn't that.

"What about you Illya? I've seen you in the library reading books a lot. With that kind of attitude towards studying, I'd have suspected you to be in Ravenclaw."

"I think it's because my Gryffindor qualities outshine my Ravenclaw ones." Illya didn't know how to answer as she couldn't tell Hermione the truth and so she just went with a convenient lie. They continued to talk a little bit more as Snape went around either criticizing just about everyone with exception to Malfoy. He even found a way to criticize Illya saying that "her hair was too close to the cauldron's contents."

At one point during class as Snape was praising the way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs, Neville's cauldron started to release green smoke and leak from the bottom, spilling it's contents everywhere. Neville ended up getting covered and had boils spring up all over his arms and legs. After reprimanding Neville and ordering Seamus to take him to the hospital wing, Snape rounded on Harry and Illya.

"You two! Why had you not told him to leave the quills be? Did you think it would make yourselves look better? Two points from Gryffindor!"

While Ron was able to stop Harry from responding, Hermione wasn't able to stop Illya. "Maybe if a certain professor had done his job instead of playing favorites, this could have been avoided."

Everyone could see a cold fury rage behind Snape's eyes and his voice spoke as if it was laced with venom. "Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tomorrow night."

The rest of the lesson passed on in relative silence, no one wanting to get on Snape's bad side. After what seemed like an eternity, they were let go.

"Bloody hell Illya, do you have a death wish?" Ron asked her.

"Language, Ron. But I do agree, it's best if we don't antagonize the teachers." Hermione commented.

"I don't care. He was starting to get on my nerves." Illya responded.

"Don't get me wrong I wanted to say something as well, but I don't think it was worth detention." Harry put his two cents in.

Perhaps they were right, but that didn't mean that she regretted anything. They reached a crossroads in the hall. Hermione went to the right claiming that she was going to the library and Harry, Ron, and Illya went forward, heading out of the castle and towards Hagrid's hut. The trio made their way across the grounds to arrive at Hagrid's hut. Harry knocked on the door which resulted in several loud barks to go off.

"Back, Fang, back," they heard Hagrid say from behind the door.

There was a moment of silence when Hagrid opened the door a crack.

"Hang on," He pushed the second biggest dog Illya had ever seen futher back and opened the door to let them in. Hagrid's hut was a simple room filled with hams and pheasants. There was a giant bed in the corner and a kettle was boiling in the fireplace.

"Make yerselves at home," with the door closed, Hagrid let Fang go. The dog bounded straight for them and Illya dodged to the side to avoid the dog causing it to land on Ron with a thump. Illya gave him an apologetic look. It didn't look like Ron accepted it.

"This is Ron," Harry mentioned as Hagrid pulled Fang off of Ron.

"Another Weasley, eh?" Hagrid put some rock cakes on plates and handed it to them. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."

"Speaking of the forest, what kind of creatures live there?" Illya asked with interest.

"Why all manner of beasts make their home within teh forest. There's centaurs, thestrals, trolls, unicorns, even giant spiders."

"Sp-sp-spiders!" Ron sputtered out with a pale face.

"There's a reason it's forbidden." Hagrid said. He seemed pleased that he wouldn't have to deal with the newest Weasley trying to head off into the forest. Illya's thoughts were on the unicorns. She had read about how their blood could be used to save anyone from death but at a curse of a half-life and while she wouldn't be able to drink it, perhaps she could use it to say attempt to create the Philosopher's Stone. The rumored mystic code to give immortalilty and that only the famed alchemist Nicolas Flamel had created. Perhaps she should visit the Forbidden Forest some time. Illya briefly entertained the thought that the package Hagrid brought to the school was the Philosopher's Stone.

'If only,' Illya thought. 'There's no way Flamel would let it out of his sight.'

The conversation had turned to discussing the local Scrooge's pet. "An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. I swear, she follows me everywhere I go in the school."

"Just give her a good kick and run. Worked for me." Illya supplied helpfully.

"Really? Didn't Filch catch you?" Ron seemed oddly interested in while Harry and Hagrid gave her a strange look.

"Nah, if you plan the route, you can dodge around enough corridors to where Filch can't find you. Plus, Filch will be so concerned about his cat that it gives you some extra time to run." Ron took mental notes of everything Illya was saying.

"While I may not like Mrs. Norris, I don' think abusin' her is the right answer either." Hagrid said.

"Weren't you going to sick Fang on her though?" asked Illya.

"Wha- no! I jus' wanted teh scare her a bit. Not harm her!" Hagrid sound a bit alarmed of what Illya thought he meant.

As they had been talking, Harry had picked up a nearby newspaper and after reading a portion of it exclaimed "Hagrid! Gringotts got broken into! The same day Illya and I were there with you!" He showed the paper to Hagrid.

Hagrid refused to look at them and instead of commenting offered them more rock cakes. Illya asked for the newspaper, not because of the break-in, but because of an article that she saw on the side. An article that she hoped she had misread. When Harry handed her the newspaper, it was to her horror and supreme confusion that what she saw was indeed what she saw. There was a picture of a town that she knew well, after all, it was the town that she lived in before she came to England. It was a black and white photo of Fuyuki City except it looked as if a gigantic earthquake had passed through the town. Every building had collapsed and every road upturned.

The brided had fallen into the river, causing a dam that resulted in the river to seep up and flood the banks.

"New Species from Muggle Town Fuyuki City Confirmed!"

By: Rita Skeeter

If the readers remember, there was a gigantic magical disturbance within the vicinity of Japan's muggle town of Fuyuki City about a month back that left hundreds muggles, wizards, and witches alike dead with many more injured. During the disaster, thousands of werewolf like creatures came emerging out of Mount Enzou followed by mysterious blasts of light and explosions. When questioned, the Japanese Ministery announced that they had no involvement with what occurred. It had been speculated that one of these creatures has been captured and it was rumored to be some unknown magical species. Well, this reporter is here to tell you that one of these creatures have been captured! It is considered very dangerous and appears to be a werewolf, yet it doesn't transform back into human form after the full moon. Research is still being done, but it is likely that this new creature is a new breed of werewolf.

Illya knew exactly what the cause was. The Holy Grail War. The same war that caused the Fuyuki fire ten years ago is also the source of this destruction, but what was this about a new creature emerging? None of it made sense to Illya. She was the lesser vessel, so it should have been impossible for the Grail to have been summoned not to mention that as Illya was in perfect health, no servant has died since she left. Just what exactly happened after she left?

Fortunately, she wouldn't have to wait as long as she would have thought in order to find out as she's contacted by someone she never thought would reach out to her.


	7. Chapter 7

It was Saturday night and that meant one thing. Detention with Snape. Harry and Ron wished her luck as she left the dormitory for Snape's office. Once there, she knocked on his door and had to wait a little bit before his voice called her to come in. Entering his room, she noticed a row of five cauldrons. Each one had grime caked on it and reeked and sewage.

"For tonight's punishment, you'll be washing these five cauldrons. Soap, water, gloves and wash cloth are right there." Snape pointed to the floor where there was a bucket full of water, some liquid soap and a wash cloth. "And no magic. Get started."

"This is it?" Illya thought to herself as she handed her wand in. Knowing Snape, she had suspected something worse. Well, she wasn't going to turn down something like this. In fact, she could use her magecraft to make this easier, after all, the Einzbern specialized in both transmutation and alchemy. Knowing that grime was soot embedded into a surface, Illya used her transmutation magecraft to separate the carbons and the hydrogens. The hydrogens were released as gas while she gathered the carbon into graphite and deposited it into the bucket. Thus the first cauldron was done within a minute.

She spent about thirty minutes just hanging around the first cauldron, making sure that it looked like she was having a difficult time with it before moving on to the second one and repeating the process. Unbeknowest to her, the fact that she could finish the cauldrons that fast only made her a bit more suspicious in Snape's eyes, after all, there was no way for her to know that Snape used a spell to harden the grime to the point where a single cauldron would have taken the entire night.

Snape weighed his options. He could reveal his suspicions to her and see what happens or he could continue to observe her actions. Either way, he knew that she was a threat. That one day where Illya had skipped lunch, Snape had noticed and guessed where she went. That day he had excused himself and making sure he was invisible went straight to the third-floor corridor only to see that Illya had created a portal that opened the to the other side of the locked door.

He brought this up to Professor Dumbledore, but the only response he got from the Headmaster was his twinkling eyes as his stroke his beard stating how "curious" that was. It was infuriating to Snape how lightly Dumbledore was taking this and so he decided that he needed to take matters into his own hands and thus was his reason for giving her detention. He had everything planned out, he'd antagonize her the first two nights in hoping that she'd let something slip. Then the third and fourth he'd drop references to Voldemort, other Death Eaters, and the Dark Mark and gauge her reactions to them.

On the final day, he was going to confront her about her identity, but with the way things were going, Illya was going to finish the punishment in one night! He knew that she was at least a powerful witch, but he currently held her wand and he himself was an accomplished duelist. Now that his plan had failed, he decided to just spend things along. He grabbed his wand, ready to pull it out and use it should Illya happen to have a second wand or some kind of other weapon on her person.

"I see that you've taken a liking to Potter. Tell me, did you befriend him because you wanted a part of his fame or was it because you're another Potter worshipper." Snape sneered at her trying to rile her up.

"Nothing of the sort. We happened to bond when Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley as well as Harry. It wasn't until I become friends with Harry that I found out he was famous." Illya hesitated when she claimed that Harry was her friend. Something that Snape picked up on.

"So what do you think of him now that you do know he's famous?"

"Same as before I knew he was famous. Quite honestly I'm surprised he hasn't let it get to his head. Unlike some others, Harry doesn't seem to think the world owes him everything."

"People will keep praising him for vanquishing Voldemort as a baby. The fame will eventually get to his head." Snape looked at her and narrowed her eyes when she didn't even react to Voldemort's name. Even muggleborns held a sense of fear of Voldemort's name once they knew who he was.

"Such a pathetic way to go. Makes me wonder if he held any real power at all." Well that put Snape back at square one. No Death Eater would dare to even think what Illya had just so blatantly spouted. The rest of the detention passed in silence. Illya finished all five cauldrons and after retrieving her wand went on her way back to the Gryffindor dormitories. This left Snape to only wonder who she was.

Since then, nothing of note happened until Tuesday morning and Illya was with Harry and Ron at the table having breakfast. Ever since she had read that news article, she had been keeping an eye out for the news to see if there was anything else. Every paper that came in, Illya would snatch it up and wouldn't find anything else about the article. Today however was different. Normally she would grab the newspaper from either Ron or Harry, but today an owl came and delivered a package to her.

The package itself was small and wrapped with brown paper that was tied by some rope and didn't weigh much. Taped on the top was an envelope that was addressed to her. Wondering who it could be that wrote to her, she opened the envelope and pulled out a letter.

Illyasviel,

You've probably heard about what's happened in Fuyuki by now and due to that I've had to move. As I was packing things I found this pocket watch. I think this is something you should have.

Shirou Emiya.

Illya couldn't believe it. This third-rate magus who never knew about the Moonlit World had somehow figured out where she fled to and procured a means to communicate with her. Shaking her head in disbelief, she placed the letter in her pocket and picked up the package. She undid the rope and opened the paper. Just as Shirou had said, inside the paper was an old silver pocket watch. It was smooth all over with no fancy designs on the front.

Clueless as to why Shirou thought she should have this, she opened it up and froze. On the bottom half was the clock, it was broken with a crack in it, but what caused her to freeze was the picture in the top half. Irisviel was standing next to Kiritsugu who held Illya in his arms. Both of them had a solemn expression, but were smiling at her as though she was the only reason they could smile and considering when the photo was taken, she probably was the reason. Even Kiritsugu had on one of his very rare smiles and it was one of the few times his eyes had a bit of life in them.

Illya had a big bright smile on her face as her arms hung around Kiritsugu's neck. This was the last family picture they took together before the Fourth Holy Grail War. Before Kiritusgu betrayed them. It was the last time Illya could say she had been truly happy. She lifted it out of the pocket watch, wondering if what she was seeing was real. She was about to put the picture back when she notice some writing behind it. It was newly etched in and reading it caused Illya to tear up.

He always loved you.

Those were the words Illya never knew she needed to hear.

"Hey Illya, are you ok?" Hearing Harry's voice snapped her back to reality. She looked over to see that Harry and Ron were giving her worried expressions.

"Yeah, I'm just feeling a bit sick is all." With that she got up and left for the Gryffindor dormitories. She just wanted to be alone right now.

In her dormitory, she just lied on her bed looking at the photo inside the pocket watch. About an hour and a half later, Professor McGonagall came into her dorm.

"Miss Von Einzbern, I hear you're not feeling well. Do you need me to escort you to the medical wing?"

"No, I just need some rest is all." Professor McGonagall looked at Illya. The voice Illya spoke with and the look on her face was one McGonagall has seen before. It was a voice and expression that she had become acquainted with after the war where one found new meaning in life, but didn't know how to go on.

"Alright, I'll inform the other professors that you're unwell today." Illya gave her thanks as McGonagall left.

Throughout the rest of the day, Parvati, Lavender and Hermione would come in to see how she was doing. At one point, Illya decided she needed to write back to Shirou. She needed some answers. Illya wrote out a message to Shirou asking if he could explain the message in the pocket watch as well as to explain what happened during the Holy Grail War. With letter in hand, she made her way to the school's owlery. Calling for Heracles, she tied the letter to his leg and confirming that the owl somehow knew where to find Shirou, sent him off. Now all she could was went.

On Wednesday, nothing came and she simply resumed her daily life. On Thursday, Shirou's reply came. Illya opened it the moment she got her hands on it.

Illya,

Everything you asked about is too long and complicated to put in a letter. So we're sending Archer to speak with you. Apparently, he has dealt with the Wizarding World before. No idea when he'll show up though, so keep an eye out for him. Says he'll meet you at Hotwash, I think it was.

Shirou.

"Wait. Archer? They couldn't possible mean the servant Archer, could they?" Illya couldn't understand how Archer was still around. Servants were suppose to disappear after the Grail War so why was this one around? Were other servants still around? The only option Illya had now was to wait for this Archer person to show up and so she continued with her classes.

Today was a special day as they were going to be doing their first flying lessons. At three-thirty, Illya went with Harry, Ron and the other Gryffindors to the courtyard for the first flying lesson. Illya knew that a few of the Gryffindors were nervous about flying and to be honest Illya was nervous too. She wondered if the broom would react the same way that the wands had back Ollivander's shop. If so, this was going to be painful.

When they got their they saw twenty-one broomsticks out. Madam Hooch arrived a little bit after them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Madam Hooch said impatiently.

Illya stand next to a broom. The first thought that came to her mind was why they couldn't seem to afford better ones. The castle upkeep and food must have costed a fortune and so couldn't they divert some of that into a broomstick that didn't look like it was about to crumble to dust.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom and say "Up!""

Illya did as told and shouted up with everyone else, but hers didn't move an inch. She tried again with the same result. Glancing around, she noticed that the only one who hadn't gotten their broom up was both her and Neville.

With a sigh, Madam Hooch told them to just pick it up. Neville did with no problem, but the moment Illya grasped the broom, it jerked hard away from her trying to get free. The motion caused her to grasp harder as it quickly lifted her up about five feet and started making sharp turns and fast stops. She could see the Gryffindors looked on horrified as the Slytherins tried to contain their laughter. Madam Hooch was trying to get the broom to stop to no avail.

On a particular jerky turn, Illya heard something pop in her shoulder. Realizing that the broom had just dislocated her shoulder, she let go and landed on the ground. The moment she let go, the broom stopped moving as if frozen and fell to the earth with her. Madam Hooch came running up to her.

"Oh dearie, are you alright?" She asked with concern while looking over her. "I see you got a dislocated shoulder. Can you stand? I'm going to take you to the hospital wing. Come on."

Lifting Illya up, Madam Hooch told the class she was going to be gone for a little bit and warned them to touch nothing. On their way up to the hospital wing, Illya noticed that her pocket felt a little lighter. She reached her hand down and felt inside of it to find that her pocket watch that she kept there was missing.

"Can we turn around, I seemed to have dropped something." Illya said while turning around, but Madam Hooch turned her back intent on taking her to the hospital wing.

"You can search for it later. Your health comes first." Illya tried again to persuade Madam Hooch to return only for Madam Hooch to get fed up and cast wingardium leviosa on her. Being weightless was weird. A short distance later and they were at the hospital wing. Madam Hooch floated Illya inside and placed her down on one of the beds and went to get the nurse. Once she found the nurse, Madam Hooch left and the nurse, Madam Pomfrey, started to treat her wounds.

Using some healing magecraft, Madam Pomfrey was able to pop Illya's arm back into place and then telling her to rest there for a few hours, went to help another student who had just arrived. A little bit later Ron came in to visit her.

"Here you dropped this when the broom tried to kill you." Ron handed her her pocket watch.

"Thanks Ron, this means a lot to me." She held the pocket watch close to her chest. When she turned to face Ron, she noticed he looked a bit uncomfortable about something.

"Are you alright there?"

"Yeah, it's just that um, Malfoy might have found it first and-" At this point Madam Pomfrey came in.

"What are you doing here? Stop bothering my patients and get out."

"But Illya and I are friends, plus it's not like I got any classes to be at, so why can't I stay?" Ron asked indignantly.

"She'll be out in a few hours, but right now she needs rest so out!" Madam Pomfrey pretty much shoved Ron out at that point.

That word had come up again. Friend. She found the situation ironic. Her entire life she wondered what it was like to have a friend but couldn't due to who she was and now that she can have a friend, she wishes she didn't as she would eventually have to leave. The thought of her having friends that she knew she was going to betray left a bad taste in her mouth, but what was even worse was knowing that Malfoy had found her pocket watch first.

She opened it to find that the picture was still there. Breathing a sigh of relief, she closed it and put it back in her pocket. Not caring about what Malfoy had to say about her family photo, she decided to let the matter drop.

Once Illya was set free, she looked out the window and guessed that it was about dinnertime. Illya made her way to the Great Hall and upon entering, made her way over to Harry and Ron. For some reason, Malfoy was there as well, but the moment she got there, he apparently had gotten his say and left. She couldn't help but notice the black eye that he sported.

"What was that about?" Illya asked Harry and Ron as she took her seat.

"Hmm, oh Malfoy just challenged Harry to a wizard's duel for socking him earlier." Ron said as he piled food on his plate. "It's taking place tonight. Wanna come?"

"Excuse me." The three of them looked up to see Hermione standing by them. Ron rolled his eyes and started to stuff his mouth.

"You mustn't go wandering around at night. You'll end up losing even more points for Gryffindor when you get caught. It's selfish of you to go."

"It's not any of your business with what I do." Harry said sounding annoyed.

"Bye." Ron stated.

"Ugh, Illya you try to convince them as well."

"Don't go," Illya said apathetically. She couldn't care less about what they did as long as it didn't harm herself or her plans any. Besides, she had just discovered a sweet orange drink and was busy pouring herself a second cup.

"Still going." Harry replied.

"Well I tried." She sipped her cup. This drink was pure bliss.

"Unbelievable." Hermione muttered as she walked away.

"So you wanna come?" Ron asked again. Illya thought about it and decided it was best not to.

"I think I'll pass. I gotta catch up on missed assignments anyway. By the way, why did you hit Malfoy?"

"Well, he found your pocket watch and started making fun of it and so I kinda got mad and punched him." Harry said looking a little sheepish.

"WHILE FLYING. It was bloody sick, it was." Ron added.

Asking for what happened, Ron recounted the entire story starting at the point where Illya had left. At first Malfoy had just been making fun of the pocket watch and when Harry demanded that Malfoy give it back, he got on his broomstick and threatened to throw it into a tree. Malfoy then opened it and had made fun of the picture inside showing it to everyone. At that point, Harry got pissed and took off at Malfoy. Seeing Harry come at him, Malfoy chucked the pocketwatch and Harry went straight for it, but not before getting a passing swipe at Malfoy's face. Then Harry caught the pocket watch before it hit the ground.

Unfortunately, McGonagall had seen everything and gave detention to Harry for hitting Malfoy, but gave him the position of seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"You don't have to get in trouble for my sake." Illya told them. "I'd have eventually gotten it back."

"We can't just let Malfoy do what he wants" Harry retorted, "Besides, I wanted to get it back for you."

After the dinner, Illya spent the rest of the evening getting through the homework she missed. When bedtime came, she decided to stay up and feign sleep. Guessing that the duel that Malfoy set up was some sort of ploy to get Harry and Ron in trouble, she decided that she would use that time where the teachers were distracted with Harry and Ron to investigate the forbidden forest. She wanted to head into the forest to find unicorns and get their blood. She wouldn't kill them, but she would use a knife to get them to bleed and collect their blood that way.

Night came and Illya pretended to be asleep in her bed. Parvati and Lavender were already asleep, but for some reason Hermione hadn't come back yet. It was eleven and normally she should be here asleep by now.

'She probably is still trying to stop Harry and Ron,' Illya thought to herself. She silently got up and pulled three hair strings out and turned them into Storch Ritters. Using her wish-granting trait, she used memory partition to create four "rooms" inside her mind and then used shared perception to assign three of the rooms to each one of her Storch Ritters and the fourth one was for her own observations. This way she could see and hear everything that her Storch Ritters would and comprehend it at once. Four different visions as well as four different hearings filled her mind.

The best way to describe it would be like looking at a computer with multiple feeds going to it. When Illya had first pulled this trick off, it gave her massive migraines, but the more she did it, the better it got and now it was more of a tingling in her head. This was how Illya was able to spy on every master at once during the Holy Grail Wars.

She sent the Storch Ritters, keeping track of where they were going. Since the Forbidden Forest was a huge place, Illya knew that she would have to do this multiple times in order to find a unicorn. Surprisingly, it only took three hours for one of her Storch Ritters to find one of the unicorns. Getting out of bed, Illya dismissed the other familiars and quietly headed out of the Gryffindor tower. She quietly crept along the wall making sure that she wouldn't be caught. At one point, she almost ran into Filch who was muttering about finding some students that were about. Looks like Harry and Ron had somehow escaped.

Illya made it outside and made her way to the Forbidden Forest to where her Storch Ritter was. When she was at the edge of the forest, her Storch Ritter caught sight of some black beast that was stalking the unicorn. She hurried not wanting the beast to attack it's prey in the case that it wanted to drag the unicorn back to it's nest. Illya was able to keep it back by having her Storch Ritter shoot off an energy blast when the beast got too close for her liking. It backed up, trying to locate where the blast had come from. One of the benefits of having her familiar be a bird was that it could be out whenever she wanted it to be and people would assume it was a normal bird, but this beast seemed to contain some sort of intelligence as it watched her Storch Ritter. A green beam of light came from the beast, aimed at her familiar which promptly dodged it and continued to circle around. Seeing the light, made Illya pause for a second.

'Could beasts perform magecraft?' Illya was now weary of heading over there. She figured that the creatures in the Forbidden Forest were just dumb beasts, but now she knew that some of them could perform magecraft. She guessed it wasn't impossible, but it was unexpected.

She continued on, confident that she could out do whatever the beast could. She came nearer to the location of the unicorn and unknown beast. Figuring she wouldn't be able to get the unicorn without taking care of the beast, Illya crept up stealthily, pulling out another hair and turning this one into a sword. The same one she used against Rin. Once she was behind the beast, she launched her sword at it, but as if it had eyes on the back of it's head, it dodged to the right only getting it's clothes cut. Wait. The beast was wearing fabric. On closer inspection, it looked humanoid as well. Was this a human?

The person stood up and turned to face her. She couldn't see who it was, but it was an adult. She focused on him and a familiar feeling came off the human's head that she felt on both Harry and Professor Quirrell. It obviously wasn't Harry, so that must mean.

"Professor Quirrell?" Illya asked stunned that a professor was here. The man, who she was sure was the professor hesitated, telling Illya it was indeed him. "Why are you out here? Hunting a unicorn of all things?"

He just stood there as if trying to gather his thoughts. Slowly he pulled his hood back, revealing his face. "M-m-miss V-v-von Einzbern, I-I-I sh-sh-should be a-a-asking y-y-you that qu-qu-question."

Illya frowned. He was trying to turn the tables on her. She briefly wondered if she could kill him. Since they were in the middle of the forest, no one would know she had and everyone would assume a creature did him in, however, if he got away then the consequences would be disastrous for her, but if she could turn him into an ally, then this could benefit her.

Illya gave one of her mischievous smiles. "Why, I'm doing the same thing you are. Illegally hunting unicorns and since we both seem to have the same goal, why not work together?"

"A-a-and wha-wha-what's to st-st-stop m-m-me fr-fr-from go-go-going t-t-to D-D-Dumbledore?"

"I'll rat you out as well."

"A-a-a Pro-pro-professor's wo-wo-word ov-over a stu-stu-student's, wh-wh-who d-d-do y-y-you th-th-think h-h-he'll tr-tr-trust mo-mo-more?"

"You've seen me perform wandless magic." As if to prove her point she creates another Storch Ritter. "So you know I'm no mere student. If you still want to go to Dumbledore, feel free, but you'll find that my word carries weight with him as well." Of course, she was bluffing, but there was no way for Quirrell to know that.

Quirrell paused, thinking over this new development. "Fi-fi-fine. Le-le-let's wo-wo-work to-to-together. I-i-if I m-m-may, wh-wh-why a-a-are y-y-you lo-lo-looking f-f-for uni-uni-unicorn b-b-blood?"

"My secret's my own. As long as you don't pry into my need for unicorn blood, I won't pry into your reason." Illya really couldn't care less about Quirrell's reason, she was just sick of hearing his stutter.

"F-f-fair en-en-enough. T-t-then l-l-let's co-co-continue." But unfortunately, their talking had scared off the unicorn and they weren't able to find it again. So they returned to the castle and as they did so, finalized their deal. They came to the conclusion that Illya would provide scout out the forest and when she found a unicorn, Quirrell would go out and obtain it's blood and share some with Illya.

Once inside the castle, Quirrell walked off to wherever his quarters were and Illya snuck her way back into her dormitory. She didn't gain any unicorn blood, but she did gain an ally. Satisfied with the result, she slept the rest of the night away.

The next morning came way too quick for Illya's taste and so instead of heading to breakfast, she opted to sleep in. It was only when an angry McGonagall came into her room that Illya finally got up. After being reprimanded for missing her morning classes, Illya went off to lunch feeling hungry. There she ran into Harry and Ron where they filled her in about meeting Cerberus and Harry's new broom. They moved from Harry's broom to about Quidditch.

She didn't add much to the conversation at that point as she had no real interest in Quidditch. Her thoughts were on the fact that they discovered Cerberus and from the way they talked, they also wanted to find out what the beast was guarding. She hadn't thought about a way to get past Cerberus. She wasn't musically inclined and so that only left something sweet. In that case, she wanted to wait until Halloween where there would be a ton of sweets for her to use to distract Cerberus. She wondered if there were more defences then just the dog and in all likelihood there was.

"Oh, before I forget, a letter came for you," Harry said. He handed her a letter with her name on it. She opened it just to see that someone said to come to the Forbidden Forest. She knew immediately who sent it.

"Who's the letter from?" Ron asked her.

"From my parents, they want to try to patch things up." Illya stated with a smile.

"That's great!" Harry exclaimed happy for this new developement.

She tucked the letter into her pocket. "I'll write them back tonight."

The fact that the letter was sent like this meant only one thing to Illya. The Archer servant has arrived.


	8. Chapter 8

Later that afternoon, Illya made her way to the Forbidden Forest claiming to want to write the letter in a private location. Truthfully, she was nervous. The fact that she was going to meet a servant without one of her own made her feel exposed. While if it had been a master, she would have been able to fight back if they intended to kill her, with a servant, anything she did would be pointless as they would blow through anything she could throw at them. The only reason that she didn't think this was a trap is due to the fact that the Archer servant would have just sniped her without warning, there would have been no talking.

Looking around to make sure there was no one around Illya called out, "I'm here. Show yourself."

Materializing in front of her was none other then the same Archer servant during the war, but something felt of as if he wasn't exactly a heroic spirit anymore.

"So I was right. This is where the little princess fled to." Archer sighed. "Well, what is it you want to know?"

Illya had no idea where to even start. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask Archer, but there was one thing that was bugging her right then.

"How are you still around? Shouldn't you have disappeared?" This really had Illya stumped, there was no way he should still be around especially if the war was over.

Archer looked at her, frowning slightly, "That's a bit of a long story that revolves around the last Holy Grail War." He leaned against the tree. "I'd make myself comfortable, this is going to take awhile."

Illya did as he recommended and leaned against the tree opposite off Archer and listened intently as Archer told her everything that happened in the Holy Grail War.

"So just to sum things up, a halt to the war was called when I left due to there not being a second vessel, however there was in the form of Sakura Matou, but only Zouken was aware of it. Then he used the halting of the war to use his Assassin to kill Caster's Assassin. At the same time, while Caster and Kuzuki were busy dealing with Zouken and the real Assassin, you decided to betray her and free Saber. Caster and Kuzuki drove off Zouken, but you got Saber out before they came back and they killed you for your treachery. Meanwhile, Lancer had met up with Shirou and Rin and offered assistance, but when the announcement came to halt the war, he went back to Kirei and Rin and Shirou went home unsure of what to do until Saber showed up who then became Rin's servant. Confused they went to Kirei, but all he could tell you was that an eighth master appeared with an Assassin servant. At the time, Lancer was fighting Assassin when all of a sudden Kirei's heart suddenly stopped, which you guys still don't know why or how it happened. Suddenly being masterless caused Lancer to mess up and allow Assassin the killing blow. That left Zouken, Assassin, Sakura, Shirou, Rin, Saber, Caster, Kuzuki, and Gilgamesh left. So Gilgamesh went after Caster and Kuzuki and killed them, while Shirou's group went after Zouken. There, they find that Sakura is the vessel and started to overpower Zouken and Assassin. Unfortunately, Zouken set off some explosions and fled to Mount Enzou with Sakura expecting Shirou's group to chase after them. He had traps set up in Mount Enzou and wanted to finish off Saber there and then summon the Grail, however Gilgamesh was already there and killed off Zouken and Assassin and used Sakura to summon the Greater Grail. By the time Shirou's group got there, it was too late and Gilgamesh's wish for a stronger human race was granted in the form of Angra Mainyu's birth and thousands of dark, shadowy, dog-like creatures. You were then summoned by Alaya as this was deemed a threat to humanities existence. Unfortunately, the four of you weren't able to keep the horde back and they spilled out into the town. The Wizarding World stepped in thinking it was caused by some dark wizard and mistook you four for being said dark wizards, which in turn allowed Angra Mainyu to flee with some of the werewolf beings. You guys manage to escape the wizards and Saber chose to stay as Rin's familiar." Illya sighed in exhaustion. It had turned to evening and dinner would be happening soon.

"So now Angra Mainyu is roaming somewhere with his minions and the Wizarding World captured some as well. Great, just great." Illya sighed again. "So why are you guys in England? Did you track Angra Mainyu here?"

"Not quite. There are two ways that Angra Mainyu can be stopped. The first is to outright kill him and the second." Here Archer trailed off a bit, but Illya knew where he was going.

"To seal him back into the Grail." Illya said backing up.

"Hold on. Although, using you is the better option, the others refuse to use that option or rather, Shirou refuses to use that option. We're here because Angra Mainyu also knows this fact, meaning, he may come after you." If Archer was being honest with his himself, this was the only time he agreed with what Shirou said. While he knew that it was better to sacrifice Illya, that was something he absolutely didn't want to do.

"I find it difficult to believe that you guys wouldn't come after me simply because Shirou said so."

"In order to use you, we'd have to start up another Holy Grail War, something Rin doesn't want anything to do with anymore."

Illya calmed down a bit hearing Archer's explanation. "What about you? You have no reason to listen."

"I have my reasons." Unsure if she should press further or not she figured that as long as he wasn't going to attack her, she was fine leaving it alone.

"Fine. I'll accept everything you've said so far, but how did you know I fled here?"

"It's quite simple. As a Counter Guardian, I'm called to solve every threat to humanity. Including one's involved with the Wizarding World and that would be the only place you could've run off too."

"Wait, does that mean you know about the curse?"

"I do."

"Will you tell me?"

He gave a thoughtful look. "No."

"Why not?"

"I want to see your reaction when it affects you." He tried to fight back a smile that was threatening to form as he imagined the aftermath that the curse would have on Illya. "Well, I should get going. I'm staying at the Hog's Head so send a letter there if you see Angra Mainyu stalking about." He then dematerialized and left before Illya could ask anything else.

'Why doesn't he just stay at the castle?' She thought to herself, before a second thought came to her mind. 'How did he get past their bounded field?'

Leaving these thoughts aside, she made her way back to the castle, ready for dinner. That night found Illya on her bed, flipping a coin in the air. It was a galleon, but it had been enchanted. During the walk back to the castle with Professor Quirrell, he took out a coin and enchanted it. All she needed to do was speak the word, apertus, and then direct her thoughts to the coin which would send the thoughts over to Quirrell's coin, which would then glow. Once Quirrell saw the coin glow he would say, adducere, and a connection would occur where they could speak to each other.

This would give Illya an easy way to communicate with Quirrell and vice versa, however, when Illya tried to contact Quirrell, the coin burned in her hand as if it was on fire, causing her to drop it. This is what led to her flipping the coin in the air, trying to think of why she couldn't use it.

'I can't use regular wands, broomsticks hate me, and now this coin as well refuses to work with me.' Illya thought to herself. She flipped it one more time and caught it. 'Maybe magi can't use Wizarding World mystic codes. The only reason I can use my wand is due to the Homunculus core in it.'

The only issue with this thought is that the Sorting Hat had no effect on her and she knew this. Sighing in frustration, she tossed the coin on the floor, just to notice that it was glowing. Grumpling about how she had to get it now, she picked it up and was about to say adducere when the thought that it would burn her again crossed her mind.

Steeling herself for the eventual pain, she spoke, "Adducere."

"Miss Von Einzbern, can you hear me?" A thought popped into her head and accompanied with it was a headache. Was the headache the cause of the backlash now?

"Yeah, just tone it down a bit. Is communicating through the galleon always painful like this?" Illya directed her thoughts to the coin.

"...For first time users, it may be painful, but it'll go away with repeated use." Illya frowned at the news. If the backlash wasn't the headache, then where was it?

"Glad to hear the stutter is gone."

"Yes, well, I doubt many people include their stutter when they think. Besides, are how is tonight's reconnaissance coming along?"

"No sight of any unicorns." It turned out that the first sighting had just been a big stroke of luck as Illya hasn't been able to catch sight of another unicorn that night.

"Alright, let's call it a night then." Quirrell closed off his line leaving Illya alone with her own thoughts. Realizing that looking any more tonight would be pointless, she directed her Storch Ritter's to come back. They would continue doing this pattern three to four nights a week until Halloween day came.

That morning Illya had gotten a quick call from Quirrell telling her that since it's Halloween, they would reschedule the scouting to tomorrow. Fine with that as she was planning on investigating what Cerberus was hiding, Illya went on with her day. Meeting with Harry and Ron in the common room, they made their way to the Great Hall. Just as Illya had suspected, the entire Great Hall was decorated with floating jack-o-laterns. Orange and black table clothes layed on the tables and the plates and silverware were enchanted to match. All kinds of pumpkin themed goodies lined the table, pumpkin flavored cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spiced pancakes, and other things as well.

During breakfast, Illya would shove some of the cinnamon rolls and pancakes into a bag. When given strange looks by Harry and Ron, she told them that she wasn't feeling hungry at the moment and was saving them for latter. Then, excusing herself, she made her way down to her workshop and stored the goods in there for tonight's heist. She'd gather more during lunch and then skip the feast at dinner to make her way into her workroom, grab the treats, and then sneak off into the third-floor corridor. With that all in mind, she went off to her classes.

Throughout the time, Quirrell kept about his usual self and potions was a pain. If she made even a small deviation then what Snape wanted, he'd give her a zero for the potion even if it was the best of the class. Transfigurations was a lot better where she was at least above average, beaten by only a handful of students. Herbology was dull, but nothing like their History of Magic class where, to Illya, it looked like a free period as she couldn't see or hear Professor Binns. However, the class she had the most difficulty with was definitely charms.

Maybe it was because she would use her wish-granting trait to achieve certain spells instead of actually learning them, maybe she just sucked at it, either way it was looking today had been another bust. She was paired up with Neville, probably because he was also at the bottom of the class, and was trying to perform the flying charm. Half way through, she decided to give up and take a nap instead.

"Miss Von Einzbern, why are you napping?" Flitwick asked her as he passed by.

"Well, it seems that charms is not quite my forte, so I decided to nap instead."

"No great witch or wizard was made in a day. Why some of them nearly failed school, but through hard work and studies, they achieved what they thought to be impossible for them and as it was with them, I'm sure is the same with you."

"I'm not aiming to be famous or anything."

"Regardless of that, my point is that even the most impossible of possibilities is possible if you put effort in it, but if you give up this early, then the impossible will forever be impossible."

Flitwick left after that little spiel. Illya picked her wand up and tried again, totally unenthused, but she didn't want to deal with Flitwick coming back. She looked around the room to see how everyone else was doing. Neville was just like her, couldn't get his feather to move at all. Ron's twitched as well as Harry's. Hermione's flew around the room and by the looks of it, that ticked Ron off. Honestly, those two got along like fire and water. They were with the Hufflepuffs and it seemed as if the Hufflepuffs were also having as much difficulty as the Gryffindors were. She turned her attention back to the feather, practicing without result until the end of the period.

After the lesson, Ron complained about Hermione when she rushed past them, clearly upset with the things Ron had said. The three of them shared an awkward look between them. It didn't seem like Harry and Ron were going to do anything about it, but Illya wasn't sure she wanted to do anything either. Sure, they shared the same room and talked every now and then, but that was as far as their relationship went. Telling herself that Hermione will get over it, Illya left the matter alone besides perhaps Hermione will fix her know-it-all personality from this. Illya noticed that Harry and Ron had started to become a bit more uneasy and awkward as the day wore on due to the fact that

Hermione hadn't shown up to a single lesson after charms. She'd already put it from her mind, after all, something much more important was going to be happening tonight. Since the last class for that day had been History of Magic, Illya decided to skip it, opting instead to head to her workshop to prepare.

Her workshop hadn't seen much use as Illya had no reason to be in there. The few times she had gone to her workshop was to try to create new potions combining the Wizarding World reagents with the Moonlit World reagents, but even with doing the calculations beforehand, the end result was a massive explosion that almost revealed her workshop. This meant that the chemical makeup of what Illya thought one reagent was was actually something else. In order to figure out the chemical makeup, she'd need to do a ton of tedious work, something she wasn't very keen on doing. The only other thing she did was form her Stork Ritters into other shapes. She had gotten them to look like

mice, dogs, and moles. By having a specific goal in mind, Illya had emphasized different parts in the creation process to create these new familiars. Mice were similiar to her Stork Ritters except with the purpose of indoor use. The dog was made in mind of having a stronger attacking familiar, however it took several strands of hair and more time to make than the other familiars. The mole was made as a spying type. She put a bigger emphasis on the claws for digging and the ears for hearing.

Inside her workshop, not much have changed, the only new thing was a giant pile of sweets. Half of it was supposed to be used on her descent, the other half for when she came out. Next to her stash of sweets were a couple of knives that Illya had created. She created them in case there was to be a fight. In total there was five. Heaving the bag over her shoulder, she pocketed the knives and started off to the third-floor corridor, but as she took her first step out, a horrid smell assaulted her nose. It almost made her gag and she couldn't help but wonder where that smell was coming from.

Thinking that it was probably nothing, Illya made her way down the hall only for the smell to get even worse. Illya stopped at a T-junction. That smell smelt so horrible and close now that Illya actually did gag. Suspecting that it was coming form around the corner, she peeked around and saw a sleeping troll in the middle of the hallway.

'Why?' Was the only thought Illya could think of. Unfortunately for her, it was in the direction that she needed to go. Using a strand of hair, she formed it into the mouse and sent it to nibble on the foot of the troll causing it to wake up. It gave a short roar and tried to smash the familiar with it's club. However, the mouse was quicker and dashed between the troll's legs. The brute turned around and gave chase to the little familiar. Once it was gone, Illya continued on her way to the corridor.

Once she had arrived at the corridor, Illya glanced around to make sure that no one was nearby. Seeing no one, she charged her magic circuits and used her wish-granting trait to cast flash air. Stepping through the portal, Illya opened up the bag of sweets and dumped half of it in front of Cerberus and true to the legend, he lept for the treat. Illya gathered up the rest of her bag and made her way to the trapdoor, avoiding contact with Cerberus incase it remembers why it was there in the first place. She opened the trapdoor and peered inside just to see that it was completely dark.

She reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the knives and remade it into a miniature Storch Ritter and had it fire down into the hole. The magic energy that was fired off lit a small part of the chamber that laid below, but it was enough. There was some kind of plant there, but it seemed to fear light as it shifted away from it. Realizing that she was going to need several of her regular Storch Ritters to produce enough light to safely traverse the chamber, she got out the rest of her knives, ready to undo them when all of a sudden her miniature Storch Ritter was shot down.

Knowing that she was in danger, Illya spun around just in time to dodge a red light that missed her by millimeters. Looking at where the source of the light came from, Illya saw none other then Professor Snape.

"Drop the knives. Wand on the ground and hands where I can see them." Illya complied. She didn't need to keep physical contact in order to use her knives and she didn't know any spells that could get her out of this situation. All that was left was to determine what to do, if Snape turned her into Dumbledore, then it was all over. That clearly left only two options. Win Snape over, which she figured was impossible or kill him.

Judging by how calm he is and how fast he was able to shoot those two shots off, he was clearly skilled in fighting. Something which Illya lacked in and so using her knives probably wasn't the best option, instead she could use her mystic eyes. From what she's seen so far, mystic eyes don't exist within the Wizarding World and so they shouldn't have any concept of them. Once she had him bound, she figured she could feed him to Cerberus and be done with it.

Once her knives and wand were on the ground, she looked up to Snape and activated her mystic eyes so now all she needed to do was stall. Unfortunately for her, the moment she used her mystic eyes, Snape used legilimency albeit stronger then last time. Immediately, Illya realized that Snape was trying to get into her head with the extreme amount of pain she was feeling right now caused her to reel back. A second later and she had pushed him back, causing a backlash for Snape. Both of them knew that the victor of this match would be determined by who recovered first and unlike Illya, Snape has been in this situation before and knows how to recover quickly.

"STUPEFY!" Snape called out sending a red beam straight at Illya's chest. Realizing that she can't dodge it, she sent her knives flying, hoping that she could nail Snape in the head or heart and take him with her. The last thing she saw was a knife sticking itself inside of Snape's leg. Cursing her ineptitude in fighting, Illya collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

**AN: So I wasn't planning to post this story until the entire story was complete and then post one chapter per week and use the reviews as a way to improve the later chapters, however with my schedule, I won't be able to do that. So I'm posting what I have now and want to know if this story is worth continuing. If it is, what's working well with it and what can be improved?**

**Thanks and until next time.**


	9. Chapter 9

Illya came to slowly. She could hear several people speaking, but considering that they were discussing Severus's leg injury, she decided that it'd be better to try and figure out where she was. From what she could tell, she was sitting in a chair with no restraints, but it didn't seem that they needed any since she couldn't move her limbs.

Feeling a little panicked, she sent a bit of prana through her system and was relieved to see that she could move a little. Whether they didn't think she could break free or if they didn't know magic resistance was a thing was beyond her, however what was important is that she could break out if she needed to. Now just to figure out where she was.

Keeping her head low, she cracked an eye open and tried to look around. She had expected to be in some sort of cell, but instead of a cemented floor, there was wood and a rug. Moving her eyes to the right, she could make out the base of a fireplace. To the front seemed to hold a desk and the left didn't look to have anything of note other then a few fallen nick nacks. Going through the options, she concluded that this must be a professor's office, most likely Dumbledore's office.

The people in the room were still talking, so it didn't seem as if they noticed that she had woken up. Hoping to use this to her advantage, she started to listen in as their discussion had turned to revolve around her.

"So you KNEW she was a MAGUS and still let her in?" Snape asked incredulously.

"Suspected, not knew. There is a difference." Dumbledore replied with a hint of mirth in his voice.

"Either way, we now know that she is a magus and as such can no longer allow her to stay." Professor McGonagall voiced in her usual stern manner.

"Oddly enough, I do agree with Professor McGonagall on this account. She's simply too dangerous to allow her to stay in Hogwarts, not too mention she harmed a professor and went after the stone. Quite frankly I think it's in our best interests to hand her over to the Aurors."

"There's no need to get Aurors involved. She's still a child after all."

"Her appearance is that of a child. For all we know, she could be a full-fledged adult masquerading as a child."

What would have turned into a full blown argument was stopped when Dumbledore spoke up, "Now, now, we can't just jump to conclusions. We still don't truly know if she's after the stone."

"What other reason would the magus have to be there?"

"We could always ask her."

Illya could feel the evil grin Snape was wearing. "I see, you want to use a veritaserum on her." From the way Snape spoke, Illya could infer that veirtaserum wasn't something she wanted.

"You want to FORCE her to drink a truth serum." McGonagall stated, bit outraged at the turn of events.

"Thank you McGonagall." Illya thought to herself. Knowing that they wanted to give her a truth serum would give her certain advantages as she knew a couple ways around such things.

"Only if she accepts." Dumbledore paused for a moment. "I assume that's alright with you miss Einzbern."

"Of course, I have no issue taking the veritaserum." Illya lifted her head and got a clearer look around the room and immediately know that this was indeed Professor Dumbledore's office. Said man was currently looking at her with the ever present twinkle in his eyes.

McGonagall was rather straight-faced, but Illya could detect a hint of suspicion and was that worry? in her face while Snape didn't even bother to hide the disdain and hate radiating off of him. Speaking of which, Illya glanced at his leg and was disappointed to see that there wasn't even a scar left of her attack. Seems like their healing magecraft was no joke.

"Well then, Professor Snape, if you would."

On that signal, Snape procured a bottle that looked to be filled with water. Clearly, Snape had wanted to use the veritserum the moment Illya had woken up and she wasn't the only one to notice.

"Really, Professor, really?"

Snape only dignified McGonagall's response with a snort, before releasing Illya out of whatever spell had bound her. He then tossed her the bottle and after she caught it, slowly drank it all.

There were a couple ways to get around truth serums, one of which was to simply resist it and then expel it out using prana, since that wasn't an option, she needed to go with the more subtle route.

In other words, she needed to redefine the words that they asked her, misunderstand what they ask her, or give them an answer that they wouldn't understand.

After a few moments, Snape asked the first question, "Are you a magus?"

Magus, a user of magecraft. By this definition, Illya would have been forced to say yes however, most words have more then one definition and the term magus is no different. With effort, Illya changed her thinking so that in her mind, for that brief moment, the term magus would go back to its more archaic form of a person being within the priest class of ancient Egypt, which she clearly wasn't and so she gave the only that come from such a definition.

"No, I'm not a magus." She couldn't help the smug look that came on her face at Snape's frustrated look.

"Then if you don't mind, what was your goal on Halloween night, when you snuck into the third-floor corridor?" Dumbledore asked next.

"I wanted to see if I could get past it."

"For what reason?"

"I wanted to see how far I could get." It wasn't exactly a lie, if there was something there that she wouldn't be able to handle, she would have fled and came back when she was better prepared. As she had answered their question, she was now free to add, "You know, to show how brave us Gryffindors can be."

"You've got it all wrong." McGonagall spoke up with a frown. "What you attempted wasn't bravery, but being foolhardy. I'll have to make sure to teach that to you and the other students as well."

"There's no point in teaching her something if she won't be here anymore."

"I believe that's a verdict left to the headmaster."

Snape huffed, but remained silent.

"Yes, well, on to the next question shall we? I heard from Professor Snape how you used wandless magic. Is that true?"

"It's true. I can perform wandless magic." While she would have preferred to keep this a secret, snaking around the topic would raise suspicion amount the professors, leaving doubt about the validity of her previous answers.

"That's a feat even the most powerful wizards have difficulty accomplishing. Mind telling us how you were able to learn wandless magic?"

Illya frowned at this new revelation. Does this mean that most of the Wizarding World was defenseless without a wand? She had assumed that the wand was an amplifier, but if it was what allowed them to use magecraft, then she would be able to use this to her advantage.

"I was taught by a woman named Sella."

"Is there a way we can contact this Sella?" Dumbledore asked interested to find out if they could get Sella to teach the students wandless magic.

"No. She's dead." Illya said matter-of-factly, taking note of the slight discomfort Dumbledore and McGonagall showed.

"I see, I'm sorry to hear that." An awkward cough was followed.

"Well, I guess there's just one final question I need answered. Do you have any intent or plan on harming the students or faculty?"

"Only in self-defense." Was her reply to which Snape snorted at.

"Murder is hardly the correct action to take against a simple stunning spell."

"In my defense, I had no idea what spell you were using or the effects."

"Have you learned nothing in charms? Even the first-years know what stupefy does!"

"That's enough Severus."

Dumbledore closed his eyes, thinking over the events and what Illya had told him. After several minutes Dumbledore came to a conclusion.

"For going into the third floor corridor, Gryffindor loses fifty points. For attacking and harming a professor, I'm afraid expulsion is the only answer."

Snape gave a triumphant look as Illya sighed, she knew this was the most likely outcome since she was caught. There's no way of changing this now, maybe she could convince the Archer servant to steal the stone for her?

"However," Dumbledore paused, Illya looked up clear surprise on her face while the triumphant look on Snape's fell. "To have a child use wandless magic is extraordinary in its own right and losing that potential would be a devastating blow for all of wizarding kind. Tell me Miss Von Einzbern, do you recall the teachings that Sella gave you to perform wandless magic."

With such a straightforward question, Illya could only answer in one way, "I do."

"Excellent! Then how about working as an assistant to a professor. Considering, the type of wandless magic you use and your current grades, you would be working under Professor McGonagall, teaching both professor and students wandless magic. How does this sound?"

McGonagall frowned, "Is this really an appropriate measure to take?"

"I absolutely reject this idea." Snape said venomously.

"Now, now, Miss Von Einzbern, if given the option would you rather work as an assistant or leave school grounds?"

This was a new development. She didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of each situation and so she went with what seemed like the best option at that time.

"I'd rather work as an assistant."

"Well that settles that, you're dismissed. Oh, but do leave your wand, I'm afraid you can no longer own one."

Dumbstruck at the unexpected turn of events, Illya leaves her wand behind and heads back up to her room. Halfway up, she notices that neither of the other professors have left yet and considered spying on what they were saying, but decided against it. She didn't want to waste this new chance so soon.

"What is the meaning of this Professor Dumbledore." Snape demanded.

"I would also like to know why you want to keep Miss Von Einzbern around." McGonagall said.

Dumbledore took at a pipe and after taking a puff, asked them, "Is the veritaserum absolute?"

This caused both professors to pause, before Snape answered, "There are ways around it, but that brat shouldn't know of any."

"And if she does?" This left both professors silent.

"We have with us a witch capable of wandless magic. She may also be able to perform wordless magic. Clearly, she's been trained well."

"So you wanted to keep her around to monitor her movements."

"Correct. I apologize for placing this responsibility on you, without discussing it with you first, Minerva."

"It is quite alright. If that's all, I think I'll take my leave."

With nothing left to discuss, both Snape and McGonagall left Dumbledore's office. With a twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder what tomorrow had in store.


End file.
